May
18, 2020
Second
W.Va. Corrections employee positive for COVID-19
CHARLESTON,
W.Va. – A part-time employee at the Huttonsville Correctional
Center has tested positive for COVID-19, prompting additional precautions at
that facility.
The individual, who is quarantined at home
in good condition, has been serving as a temporary correctional officer and
last worked a shift of less than four hours on May 14. He reported experiencing
a headache that evening, and was tested for COVID-19 the following day. The
test result came back positive over the weekend.
All indications are that the employee had
minimal contact with inmates or fellow staff. He had supervised three inmates
on the facility’s recreation yard, from a distance and while wearing a mask his
entire shift. Those inmates and their unit, a dorm with 44 beds, have been
quarantined as a precaution.
Huttonsville and the Division of
Corrections and Rehabilitation continue to coordinate with the W.Va. Bureau for
Public Health and the Randolph County Health Department regarding
quarantine and testing protocols.
The Huttonsville employee is the second among
DCR’s 3,260 personnel to test positive. The first, a correctional officer at
the South Central Regional Jail, had been self-quarantining since April 15 when
he tested positive on April 23. That officer has since recovered, been
medically cleared after testing negative, and returned to duty.
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