The North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit will be holding a vaccination for inmates at the North Bay Jail on Friday to try and stem an outbreak there.
The provincial correctional facility has been under the COVID-19 spotlight recently as the Health Unit has reported an outbreak at the facility. Thirteen people connected to the jail have tested positive.
The outbreak has been upgraded to "facility-wide" due to the further spread of the virus within the jail as of Tuesday's latest news release.
"No COVID-19 infections have resulted in serious illness requiring hospitalization," says the Health Unit in a news release.
See related: North Bay Jail outbreak now reaches 13 cases
Shannon Mantha, Chief Nursing Officer at the North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit, says the Health Unit provided first vaccinations for inmates back in April, but less than 50 per cent of the inmate population took advantage of the opportunity.
"We do know that on April 29 we did offer first doses of COVID-19 vaccine to individuals in custody in the North Bay Jail, and keep in mind the vaccine is voluntary, and just over 45 per cent of individuals in custody chose to be vaccinated in late April," stated Mantha during Thursday's news conference.
Mantha notes the individuals who have tested positive for COVID-19 have also been screened for the Delta and Alpha Variant and those results have not come back to the Health Unit yet.
The Health Unit cannot release the vaccination rates of employees at the jail as that information would need to come from the Office of the Solicitor General.
The North Bay Jail did come under some scrutiny last summer when an inmate's girlfriend reached out to BayToday about some COVID-19 safety concerns at the local facility.
See related: Inmates girlfriend fears for boyfriend's health in the North Bay Jail
However, Mantha says congregate facilities like the North Bay Jail have worked diligently to maintain COVID-19 precautions.
"Despite these measures, we do know that COVID-19 can, and it does enter facilities," admitted Mantha.
"Our main goal in an outbreak is to identify cases quickly and isolate them to stop the chain of transmission and the surveillance testing that is occurring both amongst staff, as well as individuals in custody, is really a critical component to identify cases and manage them accordingly."
