WARREN, Maine — The Maine Department of Corrections (MDOC) announced on Thursday that an employee at the Maine Correctional Center (MCC) in Windham has tested as probable positive for COVID-19. Per protocol, a sample has been sent in for confirmation.
MCC has begun testing staff identified as having close contact with the probable positive employee.
This comes after the MDOC announced on Monday an employee at the Maine State Prison in Warren tested positive for COVID-19.
The MDOC says the State Prison employee had positive antigen rapid test results on Sunday, which was confirmed through a molecular test.
According to the MDOC, they are working with the CDC to provide contact tracing and implement a secure lockdown of the facility to reduce any possible additional exposures.
Since testing began at the State Prison in response to the positive test on Monday, more than 1,000 people associated with the facility have been tested. Of the 428 results so far received, one test has come back positive for COVID-19. The MDOC says this employee has not been on site since Monday, and neither has the employee who first tested positive.
The MDOC says they anticipate receiving results on a rolling basis and will provide further information as it's available.
These cases bring the MDOC total cases among staff and residents to ten since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Prior to the case announced Monday, there hadn't been a positive result associated with MDOC since Sept. 8.
A total of five incarcerated adult residents at the Maine Correctional Center in Windham, and one juvenile who tested positive upon release from Long Creek Youth Detention Center in South Portland, have tested positive for COVID-19.
In addition to those six cases, two other employees associated with the MDOC have also tested positive since March—one was an employee associated with the Bolduc Correctional Facility in Warren, and the other was associated with the Mountain View Correctional Facility in Charleston.
The MDOC says they are limiting in releasing further information about the new positive case "in order to abide by privacy requirements."
"The Department wishes this employee a speedy recovery," the MDOC said in a release.
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At NEWS CENTER Maine, we’re focusing our news coverage on the facts and not the fear around the illness. To see our full coverage, visit our coronavirus section, here: /coronavirus
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