Clallam Bay prison outbreak reaches over 160 cases – KIRO 7 news Seattle

CLALLAM BAY, Washington – A COVID-19 outbreak at the Clallam Bay Correctional Center continues to grow, health officials say.

The outbreak at the Olympic Peninsula prison northwest of Seattle began in early August with five staff members, The Peninsula Daily News reported. The state’s Department of Corrections scorecard shows it had grown to 55 staff and 107 inmates by the end of September.

The dashboard also shows that people housed at the facility last Saturday had a higher full vaccination rate at over 50% than staff at nearly 41%.

Dr Allison Berry, head of health for Clallam and Jefferson counties, said there had been an increase in demand for vaccinations by prison staff this week as the warrant compliance date approached vaccination.

Rachel Ericson, deputy director of communications at DOC, said this week that no one in custody with COVID-19 in Clallam Bay has been hospitalized, but three staff have been.

“The Clallam Bay Correctional Center, like all correctional and placement facilities outside of Washington State, follows the protocols of the WA State DOC COVID-19 Screening, Testing and Infection Control Guidelines for safely house incarcerated COVID-19 positive individuals separately from healthy individuals, ”Ericson wrote. .

Berry said he received reports that the wearing of masks among staff was intermittent despite state regulations requiring it. Ericson did not respond to the newspaper’s phone calls for further comments regarding prevention protocols.

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