74 inmates and staff confirmed with virus in major outbreak at prison

A MAJOR Covid outbreak at a prison on the Derbyshire-Staffordshire border has seen dozens of inmates and staff infected with the virus.

As of Monday, 74 prisoners and staff had tested positive at HMP Dovegate. It is not known how many prisoners are currently serving time there, but it has a capacity of 1,110.

Serco, the private firm that runs the Category B prison – which is just outside Marchington, near Uttoxeter – on a Government contract, did not confirm how many of the positive cases were staff.

Prison director Clare Pearson said: “Over recent days the Covid infection rate for both staff and prisoners in our establishment has followed the trend in the community and has increased.

“The safety of everyone in the prison is our absolute priority and we are following all the Public Health England, Government and Prison Service guidance and we are working closely with national and local health officials.

“We are optimistic that the measures we are taking will help bring this infection to a halt over the next few weeks. In the meantime we applaud our amazing team of key workers and the men in our care, for working together for everyone’s safety at HMP Dovegate.”

Covid safety measures at the Moreton Lane jail include all prisoners arriving in the prison being tested at reception. All employees are being tested weekly. All employees must wear a mask when in the prison. All prisoners must wear a mask when out of their cells

Serco is providing isolation and “cohorting” areas to ensure inmates “do not move and spread infection”. There are “rigorous cleaning schedules”. There is a “comprehensive suite of safe systems of work” and risk assessments staff can refer to.

On January 10, the Governmentdefined ward, where HMP Dovegate is based, had 38 cases – or 435.6 in every 100,000 residents. According to the data as of January 13 – the latest available – there were 71 cases at an infection rate of 813.9.

Those numbers are now likely to be even higher. The extent to which the prison cases are to blame for the rise should become clearer on Friday, when the data for Monday will be released.