An inmate at the Kennebec County Correctional Facility in Augusta has tested positive for the coronavirus.
That comes as Maine inmates undergo a monthslong wait to be vaccinated against COVID-19, despite the virus surging through correctional facilities late last year.
The inmate was asymptomatic and is currently quarantining at the jail, the Kennebec Journal reported.
Close contacts have been quarantined, but have since tested negative.
In September, an inspection conducted by the Maine Department of Corrections found that the correctional facility wasn’t screening staff members for COVID-19 symptoms or checking their temperatures when they arrived for work.
The jail previously had required those practices, but Kennebec County Sheriff Ken Mason stopped requiring them in June against the recommendation of the jail’s administrator, according to the state inspector. However, those practices were reinstituted.
Mason told county commissioners Tuesday that the facility was following all Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention policies, according to the Kennebec Journal.