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BREAKING: Contractual Employee Tests Positive For COVID-19 at Local Prisons

April 9th, 2020 by WCBC Radio

As of yesterday afternoon (April 8, 2020), the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services reports a total of 57 confirmed cases of COVID-19 within its system:

  • 10 inmates
  • 22 correctional officers
  • 3 Division of Parole and Probation employees
  • 19 contractual staff
  • 1 clinical health employee
  • 2 Office of the Secretary employees

DPSCS is now reporting one case in the Cumberland area, a contractual employee who has tested positive at WCI/NBCI.

The Department’s number one priority is the safety and health of its employees and the inmates in its custody.

In accordance with new guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on April 3, staff in all of the Department’s correctional facilities were required to begin wearing additional protective gear. Specifically, the Department has provided each correctional employee with a face shield, glove, and a sneeze guard (protective face mask) or surgical mask.

To contribute to the Department’s needs, and the needs of other stakeholders across the State, Maryland Correctional Enterprises began making equipment several weeks ago. To date, MCE has produced the following personal protection equipment and safety items.

  • 12,000 sneeze guards (protective face mask)
  • 10,000 plastic face shields
  •    1400 gowns
  • 2,000 bottles of hand sanitizer

Every inmate in the system is in the process of receiving a sneeze guard (protective face mask). 

Incarcerated individuals in quarantine or isolation, due to suspected or confirmed exposure to COVID-19, are provided surgical masks for the protection of themselves and others.

Preparation is critical to combatting COVID-19. To prepare, the Department is collaborating with the Army Corps of Engineers to construct medical tent facilities at Maryland Correctional Institution-Hagerstown (MCI-H) and Jessup Correctional Institution (JCI), with possible other locations.  

5 Responses to “BREAKING: Contractual Employee Tests Positive For COVID-19 at Local Prisons”

  1. April 09, 2020 at 7:38 pm, John P said:

    The contractual employee was traveling back and forth Baltimore-Cumberland and that’s why it’s here. Thanks

    Reply

  2. April 09, 2020 at 11:13 pm, Sheila. Keplinger said:

    prayers to all Maryland needs to tell West Virigia to test their inmates and staff i know a inmate at prunty town a prison in West Virigia that has been sick and he said they where other’s he ask to be tested and was told that they was not test them and the gurads and inmates are not wearing mask so that mean’s at the end of their shift they are going home to their family’s and gas station’s shopping and spreading it where they go,so is this how they are getting rid of the opitod addiction not funny everyone has to do their part praryers for them all and their family

    Reply

  3. April 10, 2020 at 5:01 am, Ken said:

    John, Why would that make any difference? Are you saying we should completely cut Allegany County off from the rest of the world?

    And while you claim the reason the virus got here was this man traveled between Baltimore and Cumberland, it’s just as likely that any of the companies who make deliveries to the prison carried the infection in.

    Reply

    • April 10, 2020 at 6:22 am, Mark said:

      > Not to mention that HUNDREDS of residents from HERE travel downstate to work!!

      Reply

  4. April 10, 2020 at 9:03 am, See Yo said:

    Nothing is ‘likely’, it is known, the woman who brought it inside the institutions was a nurse from Baltimore.

    Reply

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