Regina prison faces surging COVID outbreak

The Regina Correctional Centre (RCC) is facing an outbreak of roughly 150 active COVID cases.

The Saskatchewan Government and General Employees’ Union (SGEU) is raising the alarm — saying staff members and inmates are not getting vaccinated quickly enough.

Barry Nowoselsky, the spokesperson for the SGEU, described the current situation in the RCC as alarming. Around 130 inmates and at least 20 staff have tested positive as of Friday.

The difference compared to earlier in the week was significant, as there were 57 inmates and 13 staff infected Tuesday. On April 8., there were just 18 inmates and five staff members with the virus.

“This is a real concern for us,” Nowoselsky said. “There is the odd staff member and the odd inmate that has been vaccinated, but it isn’t cutting it.

“This feels totally unacceptable and it all feels like it could have been prevented.”

Currently there are five prisoners from the RCC in the hospital with COVID, according to Nowoselsky. He imagines that number won’t take long to increase.

The SGEU’s frustration with health minister Paul Merriman and his vaccine approach is growing as cases in the RCC have continued to surge.

Nowoselsky says that staff are beginning to feel very worried that they will bring the virus home to their families.

“The numbers started to rise, they’ve continued to rise and the minister still does nothing. (He) still tries to maintain this position that the correctional centers (are) safe,” Nowoselsky said. “I’d like him to tell me what how it’s safe when you have 150 positive cases in a facility. His comments are absolutely ludicrous.

“Staff are concerned. It feels like Russian roulette with their safety.”

Merriman said on Friday that the situation in the prison is being monitored closely.

“We’re looking at what we can do within the correctional facility, obviously, we have rapid testing in there, they have the opportunity to be able to segregate people that have tested positive and make sure that it doesn’t get throughout the whole correctional facility,” Merriman said. “We do have a very limited supply of vaccines that are not committed to appointments.

“We want to make sure that we’re not compromising our mass vaccination clinics for this, but we’ll certainly look at targeting the facility.”

Nowoselsky went on to describe the province’s approach to vaccinations as ‘way too reactionary’, as he believes the government should be doing more to stop outbreaks from happening in correctional facilities.

“I can’t even express how disappointed I am in the health minister,” he said. “It’s hard to even put it into words.

“Why would we not take steps now to prevent the virus instead of reacting to everything, do we have to wait for outbreaks to happen before we react? It makes absolutely no sense and why the health minister wouldn’t take steps to ensure that these things don’t get out of control is beyond me.”