Virginia juvenile detention center new coronavirus hotspot

[Treyfish]

Virginia juvenile detention center new coronavirus hotspot


By ASSOCIATED PRESS

UPDATED: 02:59 EDT, 18 April 2020
BON AIR, Va. (AP) - Coronavirus has erupted inside a juvenile detention center in Virginia with 25 kids testing positive, accounting for a quarter of all cases reported at youth facilities nationwide, officials said Friday.

Children?s rights advocates and health experts have warned state officials for weeks that it was just a matter of time before the virus took off inside juvenile facilities. They have called on Gov. Ralph Northam to start releasing as many children as safely possible from centers, including at the newly hit Bon Air Juvenile Correctional Center outside Richmond.

"Unfortunately, those sworn to protect our vulnerable youth have failed," said Liz Ryan, head of the Washington-based nonprofit Youth First Initiative. "It?s clear that refusing to listen to public health experts has put our youth and communities at extreme risk."

So far, 97 kids have tested positive nationwide, more than half of them in Virginia and Louisiana.

....:tiphat:https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap...s-hotspot.html

 

[Treyfish]

Virginia Juvenile Correctional Facility Overwhelmed By Coronavirus


April 20, 2020 5:34 PM ET
MALLORY NOE-PAYNE


Advocates are demanding state officials in Virginia release as many youth as safely possible from a juvenile detention facility after an outbreak of the coronavirus.

Officials announced 25 young people held in state custody have tested positive for COVID-19. That amounts to about one-eighth of the population at the Bon Air Juvenile Correctional Center, outside Richmond.

Nationwide, just over 100 incarcerated children have tested positive for the virus, according to an analysis by The Sentencing Project, a non-profit in Washington D.C. In addition to the outbreak in Virginia, Louisiana's Office of Juvenile Justice reports 27 positive cases spread throughout several facilities. But the numbers are likely much higher, Josh Rovner with The Sentencing Project told WVTF, because most states are not reporting the information.

In Virginia, officials began more widespread testing at the Bon Air facility in early April after one resident tested positive. Residents there are between 14 and 20 years old.

A third of them were tested and 25 were found to be positive. Of those, 21 had no symptoms. The other four had symptoms that were "no more severe than a cold or flu." As of Saturday, all but eight residents have been released from medical isolation...:tiphat:https://www.npr.org/sections/coronav...by-coronavirus