By Jo Ciavaglia
Bucks County Courier Times
DOYLESTOWN, Pa. — Bucks County Corrections Department employees will be required to show proof they are vaccinated against COVID-19 under a new directive following a recent outbreak of the highly contagious virus at the jail.
The county has set an Oct. 1 deadline for employees to be fully vaccinated or obtain a medical or religious exemption, Bucks County spokesman James O’Malley confirmed.
Employees are required to have at least one dose of the vaccine or submit a request for exemption by Aug. 27, O’Malley said. Those who do not will be released from county employment.
So far, at least one other Pennsylvania county has adopted a similar policy for corrections staff.
Earlier this month, Allegheny County announced it will require all new corrections hires be vaccinated against COVID-19. Existing employees who are unvaccinated will be tested weekly for the coronavirus.
Pennsylvania state prison staff also are among the public employees who will be required to follow the Wolf administration’s “vaccine or test rule.”
The Bucks County commissioners decided to mandate the vaccine earlier this month, and corrections staff were advised of the requirement on Aug. 17, O’Malley said.
Earlier this year, the county made COVID-19 vaccines mandatory for employees of Neshaminy Manor, its county-run nursing home.
O’Malley did not have data on the number of corrections staff who have been vaccinated. The department has 254 employees and 66 vacancies in security, support and treatment staff, he said.
As of July, Bucks County reported that at least 200 corrections employees were fully vaccinated, but the county did not require staff to disclose vaccine status.
Neighboring Montgomery County had no plans to mandate vaccines for its corrections staff as of earlier this month. Employees are not required to share their vaccine status, so it’s unknown how many have received the shot.
As of last month, at least 256 Montgomery County corrections employees reported they were fully vaccinated, according to the county. Montgomery County requires weekly COVID testing for unvaccinated corrections staff.
The vaccine mandate in Bucks County follows the highest outbreak of COVID in eight months at the Doylestown jail, when 37 female and 10 male inmates tested positive for COVID-19 as of Aug. 10.
As of Tuesday, there are four active COVID cases among inmates and two active cases among staff, O’Malley said.
At least 400 individuals incarcerated in Bucks County jail and 125 corrections employees have tested positive for COVID-19 since April 2020, according to the latest county data.
A recent surge in new COVID cases in Pennsylvania has brought renewed attention to vaccine mandates for corrections staff, who may pose a risk for bringing the virus into jails where inmate vaccination rates are typically low.
In the Pennsylvania state prison system, where 88% of incarcerated people have been vaccinated — a rate far higher than in county jails — 25 inmates tested positive last week, according to the Pennsylvania Prison Society, a Philadelphia organization that advocates for humane treatment of incarcerated individuals.
The infection rate is higher among state prison staff, with less than 1 in 4 reporting they are vaccinated, according to the group.
Brit Montoro, a community activist with Lower Bucks 4 Change, was pleased to hear about the vaccine mandate for corrections staff, but added the county should also perform routine COVID testing.
“Bucks County Correctional has not implemented a policy of routine COVID-19 testing of the guards despite prisons being environments of the highest risk of transmission and has ignored concerned citizens of Bucks County related to this issue,” Montoro said.
(c)2021 Bucks County Courier Times, Levittown, Pa.