Print article Coronavirus cases continue to spread in Alaska’s correctional system, where more than half the state’s facilities are over capacity. State officials have tallied 72 active cases at Hiland Mountain Correctional Center in Eagle River, where female prisoners are housed, as of Friday. That’s up from three on Tuesday, according to Sarah Gallagher, spokeswoman for the Alaska Department of Corrections. Those inmates had symptoms, Gallagher said. Facility-wide testing turned up another 66 inmates who tested positive for the virus. An outbreak is also growing at the Anchorage Correctional Complex. As of Friday, 190 inmates had active infections, according to state corrections data. Earlier this week, there were 112 active cases.
Over 1,000 inmates at Goose Creek have tested positive for COVID-19 frontiersman.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from frontiersman.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Print article The largest Alaska outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic so far is unfolding right now, within the walls of a prison in the Mat-Su Borough. At Goose Creek Correctional Center, 708 inmates had active coronavirus infections as of Monday. Other jails face worsening outbreaks, too: 112 inmates at the Anchorage Correctional Complex and 68 in Yukon-Kuskokwim Correctional Center have the virus. Statewide, 19 incarcerated people have been hospitalized during the pandemic. Three have died. With a limited supply of vaccines now arriving, a debate over when incarcerated people should receive the vaccine is playing out across the country and in Alaska. The question: Should prisoners be seen as a vulnerable population living in a congregate setting and given priority access to the vaccine?