March 23, 2021

COVID-19 Cases Among Employees of U.S. Federal and State Prisons

Category: Article Summary

Topic: Transmission

Keywords (Tags): prisons, transmission

• The prevalence of COVID-19 infection among prison staff was estimated to be 3.2 times higher than the general U.S. population during the period of March 31, 2020 to November 4, 2020, according to an analysis of publicly available reports from the Bureau of Prisons. In 89% of jurisdictions, case burden among prison staff was greater than prisoners. The authors concluded that containment of COVID-19 was consistently poor in the prison environment, indicating needed vaccination priority to reduce occupational risk of COVID-19 in prisons.

Ward et al. (Feb 22, 2021). COVID-19 Cases Among Employees of U.S. Federal and State Prisons. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2021.01.018