“What they’ve done is unforgivable.' There were multiple chances to prevent a COVID-19 outbreak at a Tennessee prison, a doctor who works there tells WPLN. All were missed, and now about 600 inmates and staff have been infected.
The Tennessee National Guard is testing all inmates and prison staff for the coronavirus, after two large outbreaks at the Bledsoe County Correctional Complex and Trousdale Turner Correctional Center.Feb. 27. That was the day Dr. Emma Rich first realized COVID-19 might become a problem at the Bledsoe County Correctional Complex.
Staff, inmates and their relatives say officials were unprepared when the virus first hit and have scrambled to keep up since. Inmates at the West Tennessee State Penitentiary Tricor plant produce thousands of cloth masks for inmates and prison staff in early April, after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention encourages widespread use of face coverings.But Rich says the policy didn’t make sense to her. She didn’t want to risk treating a patient without proper protective gear while waiting on approval from higher-ups, only to find out later that she’d been exposed to the virus.
And in an email on April 20, a human resources representative told Rich that Centurion was working to meet her demands. But she said the company was “not able” to provide the level of disinfection or social distancing that she’d requested. And N-95 respirators would still be saved for treating COVID-19 positive or suspect patients.
“We follow the most up-to-date and evolving guidance of the Centers for Disease Control and public health officials for personal protective equipment and adjust our policies as new information becomes available.” That got harder the third weekend in April, when TDOC started testing hundreds of inmates for the coronavirus. Phillips’ husband didn’t call for days. But while he was locked in his cell, he sent her a letter.unit. Walls, ceilings, floor and tables. They were told to do that several times a day. They came in and tested everyone in Unit 15 for COVID-19. And from what the guard said, the results areBy the next day, those results had started trickling in.
“I was really concerned, because we went three or four days without hearing from him,” Lee says. “Then, we see on the news that they’re talking about mass testing and all these positive cases, so I was terrified that he was one that had it, and they weren’t going to let us know anything.” A spokesperson for the Department of Correction confirms that cellmates have stayed together, even if one tested positive for the virus — as long as they’re asymptomatic.
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