Mission prison COVID-19 cases rise to 11
Doctor warns infection can spread exponentially, calls for increased coronavirus testing
A doctor who works in B.C. prisons says he expects the number of COVID-19 cases in federal institutions to rise in the coming days.
Dr. John Farley said the best way to head off the virus amongst vulnerable prison populations is to increase the number of coronavirus tests being done.
Farley was reacting to data from the Correctional Service of Canada that showed 11 inmates have now tested positive for the virus at Mission Institution, the most cases of any federal jail in Canada.
Across the country, there are currently 35 confirmed cases in federal prisons.
Only 41 tests had been done as of Tuesday in B.C.’s eight federal institutions, which have a total capacity of 2,675 inmates.
“It would not be surprising if we have quite a significant number of cases in the next few days because the virus — once it gets inside a population like the one that we have in prison settings — can spread very rapidly and spread exponentially,” said Farley, who the Correctional Service of Canada contracts to treat inmates in prisons.
“On Monday, we had two cases, and now we are hearing about 11. It would not be surprising if we hear of another four or five tomorrow and another four or five the next day until we have reached the peak.”
He said he has made his recommendation for increased testing, but has been told by the Correctional Service that there is a shortage of kits available.
“There is a significant concern that this may just be the start of, or onset of, the outbreak,” he said, adding that many inmates are “vulnerable in the sense that many have underlying health issues.
“We should be testing more because we may be having people who are asymptomatic who are inadvertently coming in contact with others.”
The medium-security prison in Mission is now under lockdown due to the outbreak.
In the provincial system,
B.C. Corrections has so far only identified a single case of an inmate with COVID-19, housed at the Okanagan Correctional Centre.
So far, no staff members at the Mission prison have tested positive, the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers confirmed in an email.
The union is calling for stricter protective measures in federal prisons.
As of Wednesday, 49 correctional officers across the country have tested positive for COVID-19, all in Quebec and Ontario.
“We know that personal protective equipment (PPE), such as masks and gloves, are a huge concern for our members. At the moment, PPE are available to our members that need to interact with the infected inmates, but supplies are running low. PPE requirements to perform our work safely continue to be a source of anxiety among the membership,” union spokeswoman Noémi Desrochers said.
The union also wants the “minister of public safety and emergency preparedness Bill Blair to provide each federal penitentiary with a sufficient stock of test kits to be able to test essential staff members,” Desrochers said.
Inmates in federal prisons are serving a sentence of more than two years. B.C.’s 10 provincial jails house about 1,920 inmates, 70 per cent of whom are awaiting trial. The other 30 per cent are serving sentences of two years or less.
Correctional Service of Canada official Martine Rondeau said that inmates with symptoms are being isolated “to prevent the spread of infection.”
“We are engaged with public health and are working closely to trace any contacts in order to take further measures, as necessary. We have dedicated health care in our institutions with nurses and doctors on hand to monitor and assess any inmates that develop symptoms,” she said in an email.
As for correctional workers, she said they “wear masks where physical distancing is not possible.”