Highlights (May 19th – June 3rd):
- The total number of confirmed cases has increased from 862 to 2,395, which marks a 177% increase in the 14-day period. Similarly, the total number of tests administered has risen from 6,732 to 16,170, which reflects a 140% increase.
- The overall positive test rate is 14.8%, which is close to the 10% benchmark recommended by the WHO. However, this figure is misleading as it aggregates the testing and confirmed cases counts from all CDCR facilities.
Several facilities are extremely far from the WHO recommendation, namely Chuckawalla State Prison and Avenal State Prison.
- Chuckwalla State Prison (CVSP) – Total confirmed cases has increased from 28 to 816, which marks a 378% increase in the 2-week period. The facility has cumulatively tested 1217 individuals. This yields a positive test rate of 67.05%, which does not meet the WHO recommendation. Further, it indicates that the disease is far more widespread at CVSP than what is detected.
- Avenal State Prison (ASP) – Total confirmed cases has increased from 0 to 599 in the 2-week period. The facility has cumulatively tested 1,181 individuals. This yields a positive test rate of 50.72%, which does not come close to the WHO recommendation.
- There have been ten deaths associated with the California Institute for Men (CIM). The facility has 672 confirmed cases and has tested 3,386 individuals. The positive test rate is 19.84%, which is closer to the WHO recommendation.
The findings overwhelmingly suggest that COVID-19 is going undetected, untested and neglected in several CDCR facilities. The staggeringly high positive test rates at Chuckawalla State Prison and Avenal State Prison raise alarms about the facilities’ negligence and mismanagement of the disease.
Note: The definition of tested aligns with that prescribed by Johns Hopkins University. The testing count reported by a facility includes the total number of tests for which results have returned, and not the total number of tests administered.
Source: The California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation (CDCR) reports COVID-19 information through a daily dashboard that is accessible here – https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/covid19/population-status-tracking/.
Dashboard & Report by Aparna Komarla
I am wondering if someone is similarly keeping track of the community spread in the municipalities housing these prisons. Guards and medical/psychiatric/psychologic staff come and go daily. Are these untested individuals moving virus freely in and out of these prisons?
Our next step is going to be tracking the jail COVID numbers.