A Mission prison just saw a spike in COVID-19 cases, after every inmate was tested. There has been 40 new cases on top of the original 106.
The prison population is 209, which means about a third of the inmates have the virus.
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While two of the prisoners have been hospitalized, 30 of those who tested positive have now recovered. There are 12 officers who tested positive as well.
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Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry announced the recent numbers, over the weekend, as part of the 95 new provincial cases of COVID-19.
She explained the spike in cases is due to the “extensive testing” that had been done at the facility.
For the last couple of weeks, the Mission prison has had the largest outbreak of all federal prisons. But the government is doing what it can to stop it from spreading, said Dr. Henry.
“It’s a very difficult environment to effectively isolate people who are ill from others,” she said.
Mission Institution now has a nurse at the federal prison 24/7. It comes after experts visited the #COVID19 plagued federal prison and made recommendations. More hand-washing stations are coming and hygiene supplies are being increased says corrections in release this morning.
— Monika Gul (@MonikaGul) April 26, 2020
To help with the virus, there has been additional hygienic measures added, along with nurses working on site.
“We continue to medically isolate inmates who are symptomatic or have tested positive to prevent spread to others. This helps to protect inmates that do not have the virus and those who may be more vulnerable, such as older inmates or those with an underlying health condition,” Correctional Service of Canada said in a release, Saturday.
This comes after two other B.C. outbreaks at poultry plants in East Vancouver and Coquitlam.
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