Victoria’s jails now have 54 active Covid cases

Coronavirus has seeped into Victorian jails, with inmates and staff at half a dozen prisons affected by the highly infectious virus.

Covid-19 has seeped into Victoria’s jails with 39 inmates and 15 staff now infected with the virus.

Five cases have been found in the general prison population, all at Ravenhall Correctional Centre, and those inmates have been moved to isolation units.

“Given the identification of a COVID-19 positive prisoner in the main population, an extensive surveillance testing regime has been implemented at Ravenhall,” Corrections Victoria said on Tuesday.

“The first round of testing has seen 902 prisoners tested at Ravenhall and the second round of surveillance testing commenced yesterday, with 749 prisoners swabbed so far.

“To date, five positive results have been returned from the testing.”

No staff members were infected with COVID-19 via contact with prisoners, the department said.

The Melbourne Metropolitan Remand Centre is among jails to have positive cases. Photo: AAP/Joe Castro

With the exception of some of the cases at Ravenhall, no prisoners have contracted COVID-19 from prison staff.

The other 34 cases have been contained to quarantine and isolation units across the prison system since their arrival and do not pose a threat to the general prison population or staff, Corrections Victoria said.

The justice department body said it’s working with the state health department to assist with contact tracing.

Prisoner movement at Port Phillip Prison and Loddon Prison is temporarily restricted while the contact tracing is under way.

The cases come amid concern from the state’s Aboriginal legal service that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are more vulnerable to Covid than other groups behind bars.

The Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service said the data released by Corrections Victoria about the current outbreak in jails was “limited”.

The organisation has called on the state government to provide regular detailed updates, including how many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who have tested positive.

More than half of Victorian adult prisoners are fully vaccinated. Photo: Angela Weiss / AFP

“Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are more vulnerable and are also less likely to get appropriate health care than other groups in prison,” VALS said.

“We need transparency and accountability to ensure there are no preventable deaths in custody due to the Andrews government’s management of the Covid outbreak in Victoria’s prisons.”

The corrections department said policies to protect staff and prisoners from Covid are informed by infection control experts and consistent with the advice of state and federal authorities.

As of Monday, 74 per cent of adult prisoners have received their first Covid vaccine jab while 53 per cent are fully vaccinated, although the number changes daily with people coming in and out of the system.

Eighty-two per cent of the state’s jail staff had also received their first dose and 63 per cent were fully vaccinated.