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Correctional Facilities Are COVID-19 Hot Spots. Why Don t They Get Vaccine Priority? By
at 8:37 am NPR
The equation for COVID-19 hot spots has been clear since the earliest days of the pandemic: Take facilities where people live in close quarters, then add conditions that make it hard to take preventive measures such as wearing personal protective equipment or keeping socially distant.
Major outbreaks in nursing homes this spring shocked the nation. Now, residents of those facilities are among the first in line for the vaccine.
Similar conditions plague the nation s jails, prisons and detention centers, where outbreaks continue. The 2.3 million people incarcerated in the U.S. are nearly five times as likely to test positive for the coronavirus as Americans generally and nearly three times as likely to die, after adjusting for age and sex.
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ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: From the earliest days of the pandemic, we knew that one of the most dangerous places to be is group housing. Of course, that includes nursing homes. People in those facilities are starting to get vaccinated right now. But it also includes jails, prisons, detention centers. And the millions of people in those facilities are wondering when the vaccine will get inside those fortified walls.
ROBBIE DENNIS: You 3 feet apart from each other - every bed. You don t even have 3 feet. It s a little aisle that you have between beds. You hit the hay and 3 feet apart. Your head is against another inmate s head.
Michigan prison staff and prisoners who are elderly or ailing are among those set to receive the COVID-19 vaccine during the initial phases of the state s plan, according to the Michigan Department of Corrections.
Outbreaks of COVID-19 have ravaged prisons across the state, infecting roughly one-quarter of Michigan Department of Corrections staff and almost half of people incarcerated during the pandemic.
Under the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services plan, the first phase of vaccine distribution is divided into three groups:
Phase 1A: People working in health care settings who have exposure to patients or infectious materials, as well as residents of long-term care facilities, such as nursing homes and assisted living centers.