First inmate in state prison tests positive for COVID-19

Washington officials said they have confirmed the first COVID-19 case of an inmate who was housed in a state prison.

The inmate exhibited symptoms at the Monroe Correctional Complex-Minimum Security Unit, the state Department of Corrections announced.

The 49-year-old man was transported Sunday to a local hospital for examination and rapid COVID-19 testing, which came back positive, said Susan Biller, the Joint Information Center for the Department of Corrections.

“Following established protocol, the man was transferred back to the Monroe Correctional Complex and placed in an isolation unit in a single person cell, where he will begin appropriate treatment for COVID-19,” the state prison system said.

DOC said there are about 119 inmates in the unit where the individual was previously housed. That unit was placed on quarantine with “no movements in or out of the unit,” Biller said.

There are 420 total inmates in the minimum-security unit.

“The facility medical director, in consultation with the Department’s chief medical officer and infectious control physician, have begun the staff and incarcerated contact mapping process and are following established protocols,” according to a DOC statement. “A health care team will immediately complete a symptom and temperature check of all incarcerated individuals in the housing unit where the individual was previously housed.”

All minimum-security unit staff are required to wear N95 masks, Biller said.

The state said an inmate last month from the Monroe Correctional Complex who was housed in a community medical center contracted COVID-19. The inmate has remained in the community medical center since March 27, DOC said.

This story was originally published April 6, 2020 at 8:52 AM.