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In Case You Haven't Heard…
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
alcoholism and drug abuse weekly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1556-7591
pISSN - 1042-1394
DOI - 10.1002/adaw.32869
Subject(s) - covid-19 , medicine , pandemic , haven , quarantine , medical emergency , safe haven , health care , family medicine , psychiatry , law , political science , disease , infectious disease (medical specialty) , mathematics , combinatorics , international economics , pathology , economics
The Massachusetts Department of Correction (DOC) shut down admissions to its Massachusetts Alcohol and Substance Abuse Center (MASAC) last month after 28 men at the facility tested positive for COVID‐19. Eleven staff members of the facility's medical provider since earlier this year, Wellpath, also tested positive. The facility operates under Section 35, a controversial Massachusetts law allowing people to be committed to addiction treatment if their substance use is deemed dangerous. Commitment is for up to 90 days. “The Department of Correction's focus remains on the health and safety of those entrusted to our care at all 16 of our facilities,” according to a DOC statement. “All MASAC patients have been tested, and all who tested positive are being treated in quarantine. More than 400 positive cases of the virus have been reported in state prisons since the pandemic began, according to a report on WBUR. Eight DOC prisoners have died from COVID‐19. Two men held in county jails have died from the disease.