Warden discusses COVID testing at Beaver County Jail
HOPEWELL TWP. — How often should Beaver County Jail officials test inmates and workers for COVID-19?
That question was discussed by jail and prison board officials Thursday.
Recently, 211 COVID tests were done on inmates, with 16 inmates testing positive and placed in quarantine with mild symptoms.
Warden William Schouppe said these tests came after seven female inmates tested positive earlier this month.
Schouppe said three staff members are currently out of work due to positive tests.
He said for right now, due to the positive case numbers, the jail will be testing any person who is booked into the jail.
Schouppe also said correctional officers, if vaccinated, don’t get tested unless they were in close proximity to someone who tested positive or is showing symptoms.
More: Beaver County COVID-19 vaccine tracker: 52% of people fully vaccinated
He said if officers test positive, they follow the newest Centers for Disease Control guidelines and quarantine for at least five days.
Schouppe added, based on CDC guidelines, officers will no longer be allowed to wear “gator” masks, due to their limited protection against COVID, stating the jail has both surgical and N-95 masks for officers to wear.
Members of the board then asked how often inmates are tested, with Schouppe stating they were testing inmates based on if they had symptoms, and, like a lot of county jails across the commonwealth, were not testing new inmates coming into the jail.
This led members of the board, as well as county Solicitor Garen Fedeles, to suggest the jail have a policy to test any new inmate that comes into the jail, regardless if there is or isn't a spike of county cases.
Board member and Commissioner Daniel Camp III said the county has around 3,000 tests.
“If you need tests, message us,” said board member and Commissioner Tony Amadio.
Schouppe noted that inmates who are being sent to state prisons have to be tested negative before they can be transferred, as well as inmates who are currently being housed for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Vivitrol program working well
There are currently eight inmates using the opioid-blocking medication naltrexone, known by its brand name Vivitrol, as part of the jail's Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) program.
Schouppe noted how beneficial the program has been for inmates who leave the jail, preventing them from relapsing and having an overdose.
He said a few years ago, before the program was implemented, there was a period of time when around 50 former inmates relapsed and died of an overdose afterward.
Waiting for work release startup
Schouppe said he originally planned to start the jail’s work release program in October. However, this is when county COVID cases began to rise again, leading to delaying the restart of the program.
He said he hopes if cases begin to drop again, they could possibly resume work release next month in February.
More: Beaver County's COVID cases fall 32.6%; Pennsylvania cases plummet 41.2%
Nicholas Vercilla is a staff reporter for the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at nvercilla@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Beaver County warden discusses COVID testing at jail
