(Ottawa) More federal prisons are reporting outbreaks of COVID-19, with the spike in infections affecting both inmates and large numbers of staff.
Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) says it is facing new outbreaks at three institutions: Atlantic Institution in New Brunswick; Drumheller in Alberta; and Stony Mountain in Manitoba.
While the new outbreaks have led dozens of inmates to become infected with COVID-19, the number of cases among prison staff has been much higher.
SCC spokesperson Marie Pier Lécuyer said on Friday that a total of 248 staff had tested positive for the virus causing COVID-19, compared to 107 inmates. The day before, the agency had reported infections in 160 staff members and 88 inmates.
Drumheller Institution alone recorded 41 of the new staff infections reported on Friday, as well as the contamination of 13 inmates.
The recent outbreaks, which have also affected Nova Institution for Women in Nova Scotia, Warkworth Institution in Ontario and La Mazaca Institution in the Laurentians, come as Canada faces an explosion in the number of new cases of COVID-19 fueled by the highly contagious variant Omicron.
As the number of cases among inmates and staff continues to rise, Mr.me Lécuyer said CSC is reviewing the number of staff at its establishments to ensure there are enough officers to continue operating safely.
“In addition, we have contingency plans, which indicate additional actions that can be taken to address the issue of staffing levels, such as approving staff overtime and replacing correctional officers with managers,” as needed, ”she said.
Some provinces have made the difficult decision in recent days to keep essential workers such as police officers, paramedics and hospital workers on the job even after testing positive for COVID-19.
Although correctional officers do not return to work until they are fully recovered, Mr.me Lécuyer said the agency has a protocol in place to allow the return of asymptomatic staff who have completed “the majority” of their 10-day isolation period.
These staff members will be subjected to rapid tests and other “workplace isolation measures” on a regular basis, she added.
Union of Canadian Correctional Officers national president Jeff Wilkins said he was concerned that prison staff were dealing with COVID-19.
However, as the union pushed the federal government to institute a risk premium for correctional officers, Wilkins said he was generally happy with the measures put in place to protect them.
“Of course nothing can be perfect, but I think the things that we have put in place have managed to keep the numbers as low as they are,” he said.
Mr Wilkins added that there is no single solution to a staff shortage, but one avenue might be to bring in staff from another institution nearby that is not experiencing an outbreak.
At La Macaza Institution, 15 staff members tested positive. Mme Lécuyer had previously said that the establishment’s staffing levels in Quebec were adequate despite the infections.