Waterbury, Vt., June 11, 2020 – COVID-19 test results from Southern State Correctional Facility (SSCF) in Springfield detected no cases of coronavirus. The Vermont Department of Health performed a total of 336 inmate tests and 181 staff tests at the facility on Monday, June 8.
SSCF is the sixth and final facility to have all staff and inmates tested for novel coronavirus under the state’s COVID-19 mitigation strategy for Vermont’s prisons. Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans is the only facility to have any positive inmate tests since the virus was first detected among the population.
“Stopping the spread of COVID-19 in Vermont prisons is an around-the-clock effort that started in February, when we developed our first staff screening protocols,” said Interim Commissioner James Baker. “The collaborative, evidence-based approach we have employed since the onset of this pandemic has been a significant part of our success in fighting this virus. Thank you to Superintendent Mike Lyon, the staff and inmates at SSCF for seeing this testing through to the end.”
Daily updates on the COVID-19 response in Vermont’s correctional facilities can be found at https://doc.vermont.gov/covid-19-information-page.
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