17 Percent Of All Montco Correctional Inmates Have Coronavirus

NORRISTOWN, PA — All staff members and the entire inmate population at Montgomery County Correctional Facility have been tested for coronavirus, authorities announced Monday, with 14 percent of all tests coming back positive. Officials added that this type of broad, sweeping measure is crucial to stopping the spread of the virus.

A total of 169 inmates, 24 county corrections staff, and four prime care medical staff tested positive, officials said, a rate of about 17 percent infection among all inmates, 7 percent infection among all staff, and about 14 percent among all inmates and staff.

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None of the new positive tests showed any symptoms, except for one corrections officer who has been hospitalized.

"These numbers really highlight the importance of testing everyone in a facility," Montgomery County Commissioner Val Arkoosh said in a news conference Monday. "These are people without symptoms. It's these asymptomatic individuals that can really contribute to substantive spread."

Leading up to this mass testing, the facility had been taking temperatures daily. They'd found only three cases in inmates and three cases in corrections officers prior to last Thursday, up to which point testing was reserved for those with symptoms or those who had come into contact with a positive individual.

Arkoosh said that testing at this scale is what must be done to control the spread within any contained facility. Long term care facilities continue to see the bulk of vast bulk of the county's deaths, accounting for 159 of the county's 207 deaths as of Monday afternoon.

Until asymptomatic individuals can be identified and quarantined, the virus will continue to rapidly spread. And, amdist vulnerable populations, it will continue to kill, authorities noted.

>>Here's What Must Happen For Montco To Reopen Amid Coronavirus

The county has put together a team that has now visited 15 different nursing homes around the county, consulting with staff on proper protective gear usage and talking them through infection control. The county is strongly urging these facilities to test every single staff member, but ultimately, Arkoosh noted, the facilities are under the purview of the Pennsylvania Department of Health, and it's the state that must make that decision and provide supplies. County health leaders spoke with the state on Monday to "remind them how serious the situation is," Arkoosh said.

Montgomery County Correctional Facility underwent the mass testing over a 48 hour period last Thursday and Friday, April 23-24. There were a total of 939 total inmates, 327 correction staff, and 61 medical staff who were tested. The facility now has 683 inmates in quarantine.

The prison is continuing to reduce its intake, with its daily number of new commits now down to about four. More than 600 have now been discharged since mid-March.

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