Westmoreland jail sees coronavirus cases ease in recent days

Westmoreland County Prison Warden Bryan Kline said that as of Monday there are 21 current coronavirus infections at the jail but no additional cases have been reported since late last week.

Kline said the last inmate to test positive for the virus was on Dec. 17.

“It’s getting better,” Kline said Monday after a meeting of the county’s prison board.

As the pandemic has raged on and intensified throughout the country, state and region in recent weeks the jail as seen the number of newly diagnosed cases increase over the last month. There were more than 30 inmates with infections last week, Kline said.

Inmates are quarantined and tested when they arrive at the jail. Covid-19 tests are also administrated before inmates are transferred to the courthouse and to district judge offices for hearings and prior to when they are moved from quarantine and into facility’s general population.

In late November, as incidents of positive cases increased, the jail suspended work release programs. Kline said Monday work release was resumed late last week. In person, noncontact visits, are permitted. Commissioners last week extended free video visits for inmates through the end of November.

Meanwhile, after months of planning the jail has started to officer the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to inmates. Two-dose Pfizer vaccines had previously been offered to inmates at clinics offered about every six weeks, the warden said.

As of Monday, 137 of the 541 inmates at the jail, 25%, have been fully vaccinated, Kline said.