Prisoners and staff at a state correctional facility in West Michigan are now being tested daily for COVID-19 after the detection of the highly contagious B.1.1.7 coronavirus variant.
The Michigan Department of Corrections said in a notice sent to prisoners and staff this week that a case of the B.1.1.7 variant was confirmed Monday at Bellamy Creek Correctional Facility in Ionia. The variant, which first appeared in the United Kingdom in September, spreads more easily than other previously identified strains.
Byron Osborn, president of the Michigan Corrections Organization representing 6,000 corrections officers, said the person with the confirmed case of the variant is a staff member. He said MDOC has not said whether the employee is an officer or works in a different role at Bellamy Creek.
"Basically, it’s the worst news we could’ve gotten," Osborn said. "The fact that it's made its way in but then the additional anxiety and stress that this places on the employees and the prisoner population at this facility."
As of Tuesday, 485 prisoners at Bellamy Creek had tested positive for COVID-19 since the pandemic began, and 98 of those cases are active infections. One prisoner has died. The department reports that 101 staff at the facility have tested positive throughout the pandemic.
The message that the department sent late Monday said prisoners and employees at Bellamy Creek will be tested daily with a rapid test. If a rapid test result comes back positive, a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test will be taken and sent to a state lab for testing for the variant.
This testing regimen will also apply to some prisoners and staff at Duane Waters Health Center in Jackson and Macomb Correctional Facility in Lenox Township. Before the variant was detected at Bellamy Creek, MDOC transferred several prisoners who had tested positive for COVID-19 and also have comorbidities from the prison in Ionia to Duane Waters and Macomb "so they could have access to appropriate care if they began experiencing more severe symptoms," the department said. Those prisoners, as well as prisoners and staff in COVID-19 positive housing units at Macomb and Duane Waters, will be tested daily.
The department said it is working on providing accommodations to staff in the event that they need to isolate from people they live with. It wasn't immediately clear how the department plans to isolate prisoners who test positive for the variant.
As of Tuesday, the department reported 24,707 COVID-19 cases among prisoners and 3,521 staff cases across the state since March. There have been 136 prisoner deaths. Four employees have died.
Active infections among the prisoner population are down since the fall, when the number of new COVID-19 cases reached a record high of more than 4,600 infections. There were 833 active positive cases among prisoners across the prison system as of Tuesday.
Prisoners and staff are tested weekly at facilities with at least one active case. Per a recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the department does not test people as part of its mass testing efforts for 90 days after their initial positive test.
The new daily testing for B.1.1.7 variant surveillance will include people who have tested positive in the past 90 days, according to MDOC's notice to prisoners and staff.
Michigan's first case of the variant was confirmed in Washtenaw County in January. There are now 61 known cases of B.1.1.7 in 10 counties, according to information provided Wednesday by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
Cases of B.1.1.7 have been confirmed in Calhoun, Charlevoix, Eaton, Kalamazoo, Kent, Macomb, Sanilac, Van Buren, Washtenaw and Wayne counties. It wasn't immediately clear why the list provided by MDHHS did not include Ionia County, where Bellamy Creek Correctional Facility is located.
Current data on the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines show that they are effective against the B.1.1.7. variant, Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, the state's chief medical executive, said at a news conference Tuesday.
"Viruses change and mutate when they have the opportunity to spread, so getting vaccinated will not only slow the spread of the usual COVID-19 virus, but it will also prevent the virus from getting the opportunity to mutate as it spreads from person to person," she said.
Under the state's guidance for prioritization groups, prison staff and incarcerated people 65 and older are currently eligible for the vaccine.
Bellamy Creek was the site of a vaccination clinic Friday. The Department of Corrections said in the note issued Monday that there were no reports of anyone at the clinic being exposed to the variant, "but out of an abundance of caution you are reminded to follow the guidelines for social distancing and handwashing. Should we be made aware of any exposures involving employees, they will be notified."
