AUGUSTA, Maine — The Maine Department of Corrections (MDOC) confirmed Tuesday that a prisoner at the Maine Correctional Center (MCC) in Windham tested positive for COVID-19, marking the first MDOC prisoner to test positive.
The MDOC says the inmate is a male in his 20s who started showing symptoms on Sunday, May 17, when he was promptly moved into isolation.
MDOC medical staff tested him for COVID-19 the following day. The sample was then sent to the Maine Health and Environmental Testing Laboratory in Augusta, and on Tuesday brought back a positive result.
The MDOC, in consultation with the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Maine CDC), initiated previously developed protocols to respond to a positive case, including:
- Keeping the individual to an isolation unit
- Locking down the unit where the prisoner lived prior to his isolation
- Monitoring by medical personnel of other individuals who are in that unit
- Suspending movement of staff between DOC facilities
- Triaging sick calls
- Deploying additional use of personal protective equipment
MDOC and Maine CDC have also initiated testing all staff and inmates at MCC working or living in areas where potential exposure could have occurred. Additionally, MDOC and Maine CDC have begun contact tracing procedures for those staff and other inmates who had close contact with the individual.
The individual, who was transferred to MCC on March 3, 2020, has not required hospitalization.
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