The nation’s worst outbreak of COVID-19 in a prison is at the federal penitentiary in Lompoc, where 69 inmates and 25 staff members are infected and a field hospital is being constructed on the grounds, authorities said.
While about 450 federal inmates nationwide have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the Lompoc penitentiary’s level of infection has far outpaced any other facility, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.
Thirteen of the infected inmates have been hospitalized and two are now in intensive care, according to Santa Barbara County Public Health Officer Dr. Henning Ansorg. Of the 25 infected staffers, one is in the hospital, he said.
The medium-security facility houses about 1,500 inmates.
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“The current outbreak at the federal prison in Lompoc and the problems at nursing homes across the nation represent the challenge,” he said of the spread of the virus in close quarters in institutional settings.
“We are continuing to work cooperatively with the prison administration and its infection control team to limit the spread of the disease,” Ansorg said.
Of the 13 hospitalized inmates, five are at Santa Barbara’s Cottage Hospital and eight are at Lompoc Valley Medical Center. Six are on ventilators.
Van Do-Reynoso, Santa Barbara County’s public health director, said she has staff onsite to help contain the outbreak.
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“With support from our federal, state and local officials, the Bureau of Prisons and other federal partners are working to stand up a field hospital within the prison grounds,” she said.
The plan is for the field hospital to begin operating within two weeks with 11 beds and eventually expand to up to 100 beds for low- to medium-level patients.
Do-Reynoso said the field hospital “will prevent our local hospitals from being overwhelmed by patients and their accompanying security.” Inmates sent to civilian hospitals are guarded by two prison officers on rotating shifts.
U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) and California U.S. Sens. Kamala Harris and Dianne Feinstein in a letter called on the assistant director of the correctional programs division to expedite construction of the field hospital after hearing it could take six to eight weeks to open.
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Nationwide, 449 inmates had tested positive for the coronavirus as of Wednesday along with 280 Bureau of Prisons employees. Sixteen inmates have died of conditions related to COVID-19. Cloth masks have been issued to all inmates and protective gear to employees handling those infected, according to the bureau.
Guards, inmates and relatives across the country have criticized the bureau’s response to outbreaks at its facilities. On March 31, the agency implemented a strict policy of keeping inmates in their cells or assigned quarters for 14 days and barring transfers to limit the spread of the virus.
Santa Barbara County has so far seen 334 people test positive, with 38 hospitalized, two dead and 130 recovered.
