57 coronavirus cases in state prison system
Maryland says count more than tripled since Friday
The Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services confirmed 57 cases of COVID-19 in the state’s prison as of Wednesday afternoon, a sharp jump from the 17 reported Friday.
The total number of cases includes 10 inmates, 22 correctional officers, three division of Parole and Probation employees, 19 contractual staff, one clinical health employee and two office of the secretary employees, according to Mark Vernarelli, spokesman for the department.
The cases are in the Baltimore City central intake area, Jessup, Cumberland and Hagerstown region — with the Jessup Correctional Institution having the highest total of cases for any facility, Vernarelli said. The Jessup facility has 21 cases while the second-most cases were found at the Dorsey Run Correctional Facility.
Two cases were found at the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women and four cases were found at the Patuxent Institution. The Maryland Correctional Institution in Jessup had one case confirmed, which was a correctional officer. All of these facilities are located in Jessup.
In Baltimore, four cases were confirmed at the Maryland Reception, Diagnostics and Classification Center — all of them among correctional officers. The Metropolitan Transition Center confirmed two cases, one correctional officer and one contractual employee. One case was confirmed at the Baltimore Central Booking and Intake Center.
Two cases were confirmed at the Maryland Correctional Training Center in Hagerstown, and one case was confirmed at the Western Correctional Institution/ North Branch Correctional Institution in Cumberland.
On April 3, staff in all of the department’s correctional facilities were required to begin wearing additional protective gear. The department provided each correctional employee with a face shield, glove and a sneeze guard or surgical mask.
Maryland Correctional Enterprises began making equipment “several weeks ago,” a release from the department said, which includes 12,000 sneeze guards, 10,000 plastic face shields, 1,400 gowns and 2,000 bottles of hand sanitizer.