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KINGWOOD — Local officials are hoping that a pipeline of COVID-19 cases into the federal prison in Hazelton has been shut off.
American Federation of Government Employees Local 420 President Richard Heldreth said FCC Hazelton received the fourth coronavirus positive inmate from the U.S. Marshals Service.
“We received our fourth positive COVID case last night,” Heldreth said Wednesday evening. “This makes four weeks in a row now that they have shipped sick inmates into our state/community.”
The inmate was another transfer by the Marshals Service from a contract facility in Oklahoma. The facility, Cimarron, operated by CoreCivic, did not appear to be testing or quarantining their inmates at all, according to Heldreth.
“We are going to have a major outbreak soon if something does not change,” Heldreth said.
On Friday, the federal Bureau of Prisons announced it will begin testing all inmates before they are transferred to other facilities.
A conference call was set up by U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito’s office after the fourth COVID-positive inmate arrived at Hazelton.
Preston County Health Officer Dr. Fred Conley and Preston County Administrator Kathy Mace were on a conference call Friday with representatives from the BOP and U.S. Marshals Service.
The new procedure of testing inmates before they are transferred is supposed to be implemented this week. If the inmate tests positive, they will not leave their facility.
According to the Bureau of Prison’s website Monday, there are three inmates listed as positive, along with two employees at the Preston County facility.
Staying green
Preston County reached 142 cases of COVID-19 with the addition of five confirmed cases last week.
According to Health Department Administrator V.J. Davis, there were no school-related cases, but one was prison-related.
Currently, Preston County is listed with a “green” status under the WVDHHR County Alert System.
The alert system is based on taking the lower of two numbers: the incidence rate of new cases per 100,000, and the percentage of positive cases found in testing in the past week.
Last week, Preston County’s infection rate was in the yellow for five days, but the “percent positivity” remained in the green. That lower number was used to determine that the county would retain the green rating for this week.
At the end of the week, Davis was waiting to see whether the county’s status would change.
“I am not sure, because every day, numbers go off from seven days ago. It is borderline,” Davis said. “Plus, now it is a percentage or numbers, whichever is less. It is all as clear as mud.”
The state dashboard last week also listed Preston County with a fifth death.
“We are not aware of any additional Preston County deaths,” Davis said. “We have contacted the dashboard and told them a mistake must have been made. Our total deaths are four and has been for a long time now.”
On Monday, the DHHR site returned Preston County’s COVID-19 death total to four.
Staff Writer Theresa Marthey can be reached at (304) 276-1127 or by email at tmarthey@prestonnj.com.
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