An immigrant detention facility in Farmville is COVID-free, for now. That’s according to officials with the Virginia Department of Health.
Earlier this summer more than 90-percent of the detainees at the ICE facility in Farmville tested positive for coronavirus. At an online event Friday, local health district director Robert Nash told Senator Tim Kaine that that outbreak has now been declared closed by the Department of Health.
“There have really been no significant cases. We had one on August the 11th and this last case was August the 21st,” Nash said, explaining that the VDH waits two incubation periods after the last positive case to declare an outbreak over.
When asked by Kaine whether he was satisfied with the level of communication between the privately-owned facility and the local health department, Dr. Nash said he was.
However several other community members did raise concerns, including whether officials at the facility were prepared in case of another outbreak, how they were handing releasing detainees, and whether they had plans to give them all flu shots.
The private company that owns and operates the facility, Immigration Centers of America or ICA, did not have a representative at the meeting so those questions went unanswered.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
