RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — A total of 25 inmates at Bon Air Juvenile Correctional Center have tested positive for COVID-19.
The Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice says residents who have tested positive for the COVID-19 have received “round-the-clock medical care,” and are separated from other inmates.
“Of the 25 Bon Air residents who have tested positive, I’m pleased to report that 21 exhibited no outward symptoms, and only four had symptoms that were no more severe than a cold or flu,” said DJJ Chief Physician Dr. Christopher Moon. “Any resident who tested positive was immediately placed in medical isolation. Thirteen of those residents have already been released from medical isolation per Virginia Department of Health (VDH) guidelines.”
According to Dr. Moon and Dr. Bridget Wilson, Nurse Manager, all residents are screened for the virus two times per day.
Since mid-March, after consultation with the Virginia Department of Health, DJJ has implemented the following measures to provide as much protection as possible to Bon Air’s other residents and staff:
- All Bon Air JCC staff have been assigned cloth masks, which they are required to wear inside the living units, any time they are in the presence of a youth, and any time they are unable to social distance with colleagues. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines now recommend the wearing of a cloth mask to provide protection for coughing and sneezing.
- Staff working on units with residents who have been diagnosed positive or on units that had a resident diagnosed with COVID 19 are issued medical PPE.
- All residents are assigned a mask which they are required to wear during waking hours, while outside of their rooms.
- Youth are reminded daily of the requirement to “social distance” to the extent possible at all times, wear their masks, regularly wash their hands and not to touch their faces.
- Anyone who enters Bon Air JCC is screened in the lobby before entering the facility. Anyone who fails or refuses the screening will not be permitted to enter.
- Everyone entering the building must also wash and sanitize their hands in the lobby.