Waterbury, VT – Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans is on full lockdown following notification of two staff members testing positive for COVID-19.
One staff member was last in the facility on December 23, 2020. The second staff member was not in the facility during the infectious period. Vermont Department of Corrections and Vermont Department of Health officials immediately took the following actions upon receipt of the positive test results Monday:
- Contact tracing completed, initiated with the Rapid Response Team.
- NWSCF is on full lockdown pending mass testing of staff (scheduled for December 29) and incarcerated individuals (scheduled for December 30).
- Other staff identified as having close contact with the positive individual are quarantining and can be tested outside the facility on December 29.
- No individuals will be transferred from NWSCF pending test results.
In total, 32 Vermont DOC staff members have now tested positive for COVID-19.
Incarcerated individuals at NWSCF were last tested for COVID-19 on December 21; all results were negative.
Daily updates on the COVID-19 response in Vermont’s correctional facilities can be found at https://doc.vermont.gov/covid-19-information-page.
# # #