Friday, the Dept. of Corrections was informed by a staff member their results from a COVID-19 test came back positive.
The staff member is a correctional officer at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center. The department has implemented pre-established action steps and procedures for identifying COVID-19 contacts with staff and offenders and quarantining those exposed. The department is taking every appropriate measure to ensure that the impact on staff and inmates can be mitigated as much as possible.
The “adult” officer (age 18-40) began experiencing symptoms between Wednesday, April 8 and Thursday, April 9, and consulted with their medical provider who told them to take a test for COVID-19. The last day they were at work was Wednesday, April 8, which is when symptoms began to be present.
The officer is currently at home recovering. The department posts regular updates, as well as other information such as the steps the department has been taking to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 on on our website at doc.iowa.gov/covid19.
At this point, the department has not had any inmates test positive for COVID-19.