COVID-19/Coronavirus Updates

COVID-19/Coronavirus Updates

COVID-19/Coronavirus Updates

September 18, 2020

Information Updates

Download the Virginia Department of Corrections COVID-19 Early Release Plans:

• Early Release Plan — State Facilities (PDF)
• Early Release Plan — Local Jails & Facilities (PDF)

Download the Virginia Department of Corrections Reentry Resource Packet (PDF).

Updates can be found on this page or by calling our information line, 804-887-8484. 

If you have questions or concerns, please contact us via email at COVID19Inquiries@vadoc.virginia.gov.

Visitation and volunteer activities remain cancelled until further notice.

Total Case NumbersUpdated daily at 5:00 pm

Cases by LocationUpdated daily at 5:00 pm

Early ReleaseUpdated daily at 5:00 pm

As of September 17, 2020, pursuant to the legislative authority granted to the Director of Corrections through Governor Northam's executive amendments to House Bill 29 and House Bill 30, the following numbers of offenders have been released.

Virginia DOC Facilities 544

Institutional Hospitals 1

State Responsible in Local Jails 248

Testing and Screening

• In addition to testing symptomatic offenders, the VADOC is conducting point prevalence testing in partnership with the Virginia Department of Health (VDH), the University of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, the Division of Consolidated Laboratory Services, and commercial labs. This involves testing asymptomatic offenders and enables us to monitor and treat positive cases sooner, rather than after symptoms develop. VDH has created guidelines around point prevalence testing.
• The Virginia DOC is utilizing its COVID-19 Medical Guideline along with an Offender Screening Questionnaire and Medical Evaluation Tool to evaluate and monitor offenders’ health.
• All offenders being released from the VADOC facilities as they finish their sentences are now screened for COVID-19 on the day of their release.
• There is a separate screening tool for employees. All employees must assess their risk on a daily basis prior to reporting to work.
• All persons entering any VADOC correctional facility will be screened using infrared/temporal artery thermometers (forehead thermometers).

COVID-19 Research Resources

• Interim Guidance on Management of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Correctional and Detention Facilities (CDC guidance)
• Recurrence of positive SARS‐CoV‐2 in patients recovered from COVID‐19 (Journal of Medical Virology May 25, 2020)
• Variation in False-Negative Rate of Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction–Based SARS-CoV-2 Tests by Time Since Exposure (Annals of Internal Medicine May 13, 2020)
• Discontinuation of Isolation for Persons with COVID -19 Not in Healthcare Settings (CDC guidance)

Visitation and Telephone Communication

• While visitation at correctional facilities is cancelled for now, off-site video visitation, facilitated through Assisting Families of Inmates (AFOI), remains available. JPay and VADOC have worked together to credit each offender’s JPay account with two free JPay stamps per week during this time.

• To assist in preventing the reach of COVID-19 into state correctional facilities, all attorney/authorized attorney representative meetings with offenders will be conducted over the phone until further notice in an attempt to limit the number of persons coming in and out of facilities each day during this pandemic.

  These calls will take place through the Offender Telephone System. If an offender’s attorney or authorized attorney representative wishes to have a legal visit with an offender, that attorney/authorized attorney representative must contact the facility regarding the requested date and time of the meeting.

  Once a meeting date and time is set, just as with in-person meetings, the institution will facilitate the phone meeting between the offender and the attorney or authorized attorney representative. The offender will place the call over the Offender Telephone System. If you are an attorney or authorized attorney representative who needs to set up a phone meeting with an offender, please contact the offender's facility.

• Offenders will be provided one free phone call per week from August 17, 2020 to June 31, 2021.

Sanitation and Personal Protective Equipment

• The VADOC's extensive Medical Epidemic/Pandemic Sanitation Plan is in place to make certain that all Department facilities ensure accurate sanitation during this pandemic while utilizing appropriate chemicals and approved personal protective equipment.
• There is plenty of soap and water at the facilities, and that remains the best way to keep hands clean.
• Virginia Correctional Enterprises (VCE) is now manufacturing about 30,000 sneeze/cough guard masks per day. All DOC staff and offenders have been issued VCE masks. These utility masks are available to other local and state government entities, and 34 have placed orders. For example, these utility masks are going to towns and counties, local jails, the Office of the Medical Examiner, State Police, and the Virginia National Guard.
• Virginia Correctional Enterprises manufactures both utility face masks and cleaning supplies approved by the EPA for use in combating the coronavirus, so there is no shortage of either in the facilities.

• Sneeze/cough guard masks made by VCE have been provided to each staff member. Staff members are required to wear their VCE masks unless wearing another form of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) mask. The sneeze/cough guard mask is providing an added level of protection but should not be worn in place of PPE in situations where PPE is required.

  All offenders are required to wear their VCE masks at all times unless instructed to remove it by a staff member. The sneeze/cough guard mask should not be worn in place of PPE in situations where PPE is required.

• The CDC has advised all healthcare institutions to operate under a PPE contingency strategy. This means we are using PPE in a risk stratification that we have classified as red, yellow and green. We are reusing PPE when indicated as safe by the CDC or the manufacturer and are cleaning or washing items that can be. Red zones are for known COVID-19 areas, yellow zones are quarantined areas or busy areas with undifferentiated patients, and green zones are low traffic areas and places with no known COVID-19 cases, no symptomatic offenders and no offender mixing.

Facility Staffing

• There are currently no staffing shortages caused by COVID-19.
• The VADOC continues to plan for every possible contingency. An emergency menu has been developed for use in the event that a corrections facility has food service workers unable to report to work. This menu contains food items that will be centrally ordered.
• The VADOC is working with a temp agency to hire additional nurses for coverage during this pandemic.

Offender Transportation, Intake, and Management

• As of the Governor’s declaration of a state of emergency, the VADOC suspended offender intake from local jails for 30 days. The DOC is restricting the transfer of inmates between DOC facilities unless it is necessary to transport an inmate for security reasons and/or a pending court appearance.
• VADOC facilities have moved to modified lockdown in order to minimize contact between groups of offenders from different buildings. Offenders will eat in their pods and go to recreation with their own pod of offenders and will not eat and recreate with offenders from other pods until further notice.
• The VADOC has a plan in place that would allow offender medications to temporarily be kept by the offenders rather than received through the usual pill line in an effort to promote social distancing by cutting down on pill lines. To qualify, each offender patient would have to be interviewed, meet eligibility criteria, and complete a self-med contract. Medications being considered include over-the-counter, non-prescription medications, selected mental health medications, and other medications based on facility need.
• Offenders in dormitory housing have been instructed to sleep head to toe, thereby increasing the breathable space between offenders. Additionally, it has been recommended to offenders that they maintain a six foot distance whenever possible and not sit on anyone else’s bed.
• Offenders releasing from VADOC facilities are now being given a 90-day supply of medicine. Previously, offenders were released with a 30-day supply. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are anticipating that our returning citizens will be experiencing the need for more time to establish care in the community and should socially distance themselves upon release. This includes avoiding medical care for nonessential visits.
• All Probation and Parole districts have adjusted their intake process so that all or a portion of the intake process is set up and completed electronically. If electronic intake is not possible, officers are limited to completing one intake at a time in a manner that meets current sanitation and social distancing guidelines, utilizing Personal Protective Equipment.

Press Releases

• Virginia DOC Leading the Way in Testing of Inmates on a Massive Scale
• Virginia DOC to Dramatically Increase COVID-19 Testing of Inmates
• Virginia Sees First Incarcerated Offender Death Related to COVID-19
• One New COVID-19 Offender Case for Virginia DOC
• Three Virginia DOC Offenders Test Positive for COVID-19
• Virginia DOC’s Correctional Enterprises Manufacturing Sneeze/Cough Guard Masks for Staff and Offenders
• Virginia DOC’s COVID-19 Medical Guideline, Pandemic Sanitation Plan Working to Keep Offenders Safe
• Visitors and Volunteers to Virginia DOC Facilities Suspended Until Further Notice
• Virginia DOC Mobilized Against COVID-19, Asks Visitors to Self-Monitor