One prisoner has now tested positive at Hawke's Bay Regional Prison for Covid. Photo / Paul Taylor
One prisoner has now tested positive at Hawke's Bay Regional Prison for Covid. Photo / Paul Taylor
Eleven staff and one prisoner have tested positive for Covid at Hawke's Bay Regional Prison, the Department of Corrections has reported.
The 11 custodial staff who work at the prison near Hastings are currently isolating at home.
There were no active cases among prisoners as at Monday morning, but oneprisoner has now returned a positive result at the jail.
"Hawke's Bay Regional Prison has a current prison population of 468 - this fluctuates daily due to arrivals, releases and court decisions," Leigh Marsh, the Corrections deputy national commissioner, said.
It comes as a Covid outbreak has swept through Auckland's Mt Eden jail, resulting in hundreds of inmates testing positive.
Corrections shares the number of active cases across all its prisons nationwide on its website.
There were 539 active cases as of Tuesday morning, including 200 at Mt Eden jail and one in Hawke's Bay.
Marsh said the protocol at Hawke's Bay Regional Prison to test prisoners for Covid included all new arrivals being tested with a rapid antigen test (RAT) then again on days five and 10.
Eleven staff have tested positive for Covid at Hawke's Bay Regional Prison. Photo / NZME
"If [an existing prisoner] had symptoms of Covid 19 a RAT would be made available," Marsh said.
If a prisoner is not a new arrival and is not symptomatic, or has not been deemed a close contact or been exposed to someone who may have had Covid-19, then there is no need to do a test, he said.
He said a three-stage model to help protect against Covid was introduced across all prisons just before Christmas, and all prisons were currently at "stage three".
"Face-to-face visits are suspended for personal and legal visitors at stage two and three," he said.
"Masks are available to prisoners and are required when out of their cell at stage three.
"When prisoners need to be moved into quarantine units, we provide them with support and information so they fully understand the controls we are putting in place for their health and safety."
Prisoners are entitled to one hour of physical exercise out of their cells each day as a minimum under the Corrections Act 2004, which can be revoked in the case of an emergency.
A Corrections spokesman said: "Due to the situation at Hawkes Bay Regional Prison, we are continuing to prioritise providing prisoners with their usual time out of their cells wherever possible and in line with staff availability."
An advocacy group, JustSpeak, released an open letter recently directed at politicians and Corrections which included a list of recommendations to support prisoner health and safety during the spread of Omicron.
The recommendations included addressing "sanitation issues in prisons, in particular the many reported instances of poor ventilation" and provide air purifiers in prisons or blocks "that have been identified to have poor ventilation".
A Corrections spokesman said staff and contractors had completed a review of the ventilation systems at Hawke's Bay Regional Prison.
"This review has assisted with identifying which units would be suitable for quarantine and isolation spaces within each prison."
By law, people in prison are able to access a level of primary healthcare that is at least equivalent to what they could expect to receive in the community, including access to a GP.
Staff use four-point PPE (gloves, mask, eye protection and gown) in higher risk areas of the prison and activities at stage three.
