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40 inmates at FCI Ray Brook test positive for COVID-19

RAY BROOK — The Federal Corrections Institute at Ray Brook is in the midst of a coronavirus outbreak. The Federal Bureau of Prisons reported 40 inmates and four staff positive for COVID-19 on Friday.

The number of positive inmates reported Friday was double the number reported the day prior.

The facility has 853 inmates currently residing there, according to its website.

Visitations have been suspended at the facility. Everyone is required to wear a mask and socially distance at all times. Staff do daily symptom screenings and temperature checks when they get to work.

The BOP has a tiered approach for modified operations during outbreaks, trying to balance safety and allowing operations to normalize when the spread is not high, according to BOP Public Information Officer Scott Taylor.

FCI Ray Brook is currently in the “Level 3” tier, the most intense level for COVID-19 modifications.

Taylor said they do not provide specific details for “safety, security, and privacy reasons” but gave some details of the outbreak.

“The majority of inmates who tested positive for COVID-19 are asymptomatic … and do not require the level of care offered in a hospital setting,” he wrote in an email.

All inmates who are positive or symptomatic are medically isolated and provided medical care until they are considered recovered by medical staff, he said, adding that there are designated areas for quarantine and isolation where inmates are treated at the institution unless medical staff determine they require hospitalization.

“FCI Ray Brook has an ample number of trained medical personnel,” Taylor wrote.

Taylor said all three major brands of vaccines are available for staff and inmates.

He said the BOP will report its latest COVID-19 numbers every weekday at 3 p.m.

“The bulk of our testing conducted by the BOP is rRT-PCR testing through commercial labs,” Taylor wrote. “However, FCI Ray Brook is also utilizing the Abbott ID NOW instrument for Rapid RNA testing. Test results are typically received within 10-15 minutes.”

Last year, the facility had a COVID-19 outbreak which peaked at 130 inmates and 25 staff testing positive at one time. These numbers were only discovered weeks after the fact, when the corrections officer union for FCI Ray Brook — AFGE CPL33, Local 3882 — raised concerns that the BOP was not publicly reporting all of its COVID-19 data at the facility.

Union president James Weldon said at the time that testing was not made available to staff members and they had to seek testing on their own, and were not always counted in the BOP’s numbers as a result.

Essex County Public Health Program Coordinator Andrea Whitmarsh said though the county does not have jurisdiction over the federal facility, RCI Ray Brook has been “transparent” with its numbers.

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