Inmates test positive for COVID-19

Officials monitoring 56 patients at Hartford Correctional Center

Department of Correction officials said Wednesday that they are monitoring 56 inmates at Hartford Correctional Center who tested positive for COVID-19, part of an uptick in inmate illness following weeks in which few coronavirus cases were reported.

Two DOC employees at the facility had recently contracted the virus, so officials began testing inmates whomayhave come in contact with the employees and found that 56 were positive for the virus. DOC officials said that all those inmates were not showing symptoms.

Those inmates were separated from the remainder of those incarcerated at Hartford Correctional Center as they are monitored by DOC staff.

DOC said as part of its mass-testing efforts, every inmate at Hartford Correctional Center will be tested for the virus. DOC will also conduct mandatory staff testing.

Following the discovery that 56 inmates had contracted COVID-19, DOC placed the Hartford facility on lockdown as they conducted a deep cleaning. Visitations were scheduled to restart at the facility Thursday, but DOC has pushed that off out of caution.

“Based on the uptick we are seeing in the community, we anticipated seeing cases and are well prepared to handle,” said DOC spokeswoman Karen Martucci.

While DOC experienced a lull in virus activity through the end of summer and into September, top officials have remained prepared for a second wave of COVID-19.

As of this week, 81 inmates across several prison facilities had tested positive for COVID-19, but were showing no symptoms. An additional six inmates were sick and showing symptoms, DOC said.

Additionally, 27 DOC staff members were recovering from the coronavirus.

It is unclear how many inmates have been transferred to DOC’s medical quarantine facility, which was moved recently from the state’s maximum-security facility, Northern Correctional Institution in Somers, to MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield.