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Covid-19 Ravages Northampton County Prison With 22 More Inmates Testing Positive

Northampton County Prison is no stranger to a second wave of COVID-19 cases.

Northampton County Prison

Northampton County Prison

Photo Credit: Google Maps

An additional 22 inmates and three staff members tested positive at the Easton prison since last week, the Department of Corrections said Tuesday, Dec. 22.

Those new cases bring the total to108 inmates and 38 employees who tested positive since the onset of the pandemic in March. As of Tuesday, there were 515 inmates in the Northampton County Prison.

Of the 108 inmates who tested positive, 34 were in quarantine, with 74 having either finished their self-isolation or been released.

Thirty-one of the 38 staff members had finished their quarantine periods and returned to work, while seven remained out sick.

PrimeCare Medical, the prison's vendor has enforced updated cleaning procedures, such as regular disinfection of rooms with UV lights.

All inmates and employees were expected to wear face masks in the facility and have their temperatures checked multiple times a day, county officials said.

New inmates were being tested upon arrival and random testing was expected to occur throughout the prison on a regular basis, though universal COVID-19 testing had been implemented at the prison last July.

A ban on visitors and tours implemented March 10 remains in effect, but will be reevaluated in January 2021.

The Pennsylvania State Prison dashboard showed a total of 18,079 positive cases among the 39,000 prisoners in the commonwealth as of Tuesday.  Of those inmates, 10,103 who had recovered and 65 had died.

There were 2,174 prison staffers who had tested positive, including 1,900 who recovered and two who died, the PA State Prison dashboard shows.

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