SLO County Public Health testing 200 CMC employees for COVID-19
Update, 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 5: The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation expanded employee coronavirus testing on May 1. Spokeswoman Terry Thornton said Tuesday afternoon that nearly all of the 215 employees identified to have come in contact with a sick inmate on that date been tested.
The turnaround time for COVID-19 tests is between 48 and 72 hours.
CMC has also submitted approximately 170 tests from the incarcerated population to the public health lab for analysis; the public health department has processed 136 tests as of Tuesday afternoon, Thornton said.
Original story: With nearly a dozen California Men’s Colony inmates having tested positive for the new coronavirus, county Public Health is providing free testing for roughly 10 percent of the prison’s employees, the county announced Monday.
County Public Health Officer Dr. Penny Borenstein said Monday that the mass testing is being provided as part of the county’s emergency response to emerging cases of COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus.
“The county decided to make the testing available to staff at CMC who are part of our outbreak investigation to make it as easy as possible for staff to access, even on their lunch hour or break or shift change, to get all of the remaining people tested as part of the outbreak investigation,” Borenstein said Monday.
All the current cases have been limited to one block of the prison, Borenstein said, and the county is providing the testing to any prison employees who may have come into contact with inmates on that block.
Borenstein said roughly 200 employees meet that criteria, and the county will expand testing to more employees should positive cases be reported in other areas of the facility in San Luis Obispo.
A representative from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation was not immediately available for additional information late Monday.
As of Monday, CDCR said 43 CMC inmates have been tested for COVID-19 and 11 have tested positive, but the agency does not report how many of its employees statewide have been tested.
Two employees have tested positive, the agency said.
The first positive case of an inmate with coronavirus was confirmed at the prison on April 11.
Across California, a total of 1,778 state inmates have been tested for the virus. As of Wednesday, the agency says 330 have tested positive.
That figure also does not include inmates being held at federal prisons in California.
The California Men’s Colony is an all-male minimum- to medium-security state prison, with roughly 3,800 inmates and 1,800 employees.
Last week, after five new coronavirus cases were reported on Wednesday, CDCR released a statement saying that CMC healthcare staff are conducting health screenings of all inmates to quickly identify anyone with new symptoms.
The facility says it is following isolation and quarantine protocols for the incarcerated population and has implemented physical distancing measures; provided masks for inmates and staff; conducted verbal and temperature screenings whenever anyone enters the institution; and is providing alcohol-based hand sanitizer in dispenser stations in housing units, dining halls, work change areas, and other areas where sinks and soap are not immediately available.
This story was originally published May 4, 2020 at 6:35 PM.
