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Two inmates from Auckland Prison in Paremoremo were isolated and tested for Covid-19 after a family contact of a staff member tested positive for the virus.
The staff member is also in self-isolation and will be tested repeatedly to make sure he does not have the virus, prison director David Pattinson told 1 NEWS.
His domestic contact tested positive for Covid-19 on Saturday. The staff member was tested the next day and tested negative, but will be tested two more times and will remain in isolation.
Visits to the prison were canceled on Sunday and Tuesday, which was the next scheduled day.
“We take safety and well-being very seriously and are not prepared to take any risks with the possibility of the virus entering a prison,” says Pattinson.
“We are taking a proactive and deliberately cautious approach and have identified 30 individuals who may have had some potential contact with the staff member since Monday, September 7.”
Those contacts include two prisoners, who have been isolated and examined.
Pattinson says none of them are symptomatic, but all staff caring for them will wear full PPE.
The other contacts include contractors and 20 other members of the prison staff.
“Corrections staff have been put on special leave and have been recommended to isolate themselves and get tested, none of them are symptomatic,” says Pattinson.
It says that all staff wear personal protective equipment when working inside prisons and that people’s temperature is monitored when they arrive at the prison.
