Waterbury, VT – Vermont Department of Corrections (Vermont DOC) is reporting one new staff case of Covid-19 and nine new incarcerated cases at Northwest State Correctional Facility (NWSCF) in St. Albans. The ten cases were detected in testing conducted February 17, 2021.
Contact tracing is complete on the ten new positive cases and those identified as close contacts of the individuals who tested positive are being placed in medical quarantine. All staff and incarcerated individuals at NWSCF will be tested again on February 24.
Full lockdown remains in place at NWSCF; it began after January 28 testing showed positive cases among staff and the incarcerated population. As of today, two staff and nine incarcerated individuals at NWSCF are positive for the virus.
In addition to the cases at NWSCF, a staff member from Northern State Correctional Facility (NSCF) tested positive on February 18. The facility was initially placed on full lockdown and has since returned to modified operations after contact tracing on the positive staff member showed low-exposure risk to the incarcerated population.
Northeast Correctional Complex (NECC) remains in full lockdown in response to a positive staff case detected the first week of February. Outbreak testing on February 11 returned one more positive staff case. A second round of outbreak testing on February 19 showed no new positive cases among staff or the incarcerated population. All staff and incarcerated individuals will be tested again on February 26.
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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