Currently positive-testing inmates: 1,544 (down from 1,729)
Currently positive-testing staff: 1,682 (up from 1,667)
Recovered inmates: 46,082 (up from 45,853)
Recovered staff: 4,766 (up from 4,740)
Institutions with the largest number of currently positive-testing inmates:
Schuylkill FCI: 271 (up from 264)
Florence High USP: 226 (up from 221)
Fort Dix FCI: 172
Institutions with the largest number of currently positive-testing staff:
Pollock USP: 83 (up from 82)
Tucson USP: 69 (unchanged)
Oklahoma City FTC: 59 (unchanged)
System-wide testing results: Presently, BOP has 124,033 federal inmates in BOP-managed institutions and 13,560 in community-based facilities. Today's stats:
Completed tests: 104,713 (up from 104,441) Positive tests: 46,782 (up from 46,733)
Case Note: Glad you recovered and got vaccinated; motion denied....
In UNITED STATES v. KURTIS KELVIN McGILL Defendant, No. CR SAG-15-0037, 2021 WL 662182 (D. Md. Feb. 19, 2021) (Gallagher, J.), the court denied defendant's application for compassionate release because he had recovered from COVID, supposedly without serious after-effects, and was now largely protected by having been vaccinated: "The written materials presented to the Court evidenced that McGill suffered from several significant medical conditions, including obesity, diabetes, and hypertension, each of which independently constitutes a COVID-19 risk factor as outlined by the Center for Disease Control (“CDC”). … On January 28, 2021, a medical update revealed two pieces of good news: (1) McGill had apparently reached a point of substantial recovery without suffering serious complications from his viral infection; and (2) McGill had been approved to receive the second dose of the COVID- 6 19 vaccine, despite his intervening bout with the virus. Medical records later confirmed that McGill had received the first dose of the vaccine on January 7, 2021. … Thus, as of December of this year, McGill would have been within the set of individuals presenting “extraordinary and compelling circumstances” warranting further consideration of whether compassionate release was appropriate. However, McGill's recent infection, from which he recovered without serious incident, and the fact that he has now received two doses of a highly effective FDA-approved vaccine, alter the above analysis. No one could opine, with any degree of certainty, whether McGill's relatively mild course of illness resulted from the fact that he had had a single dose of the vaccine before his infection, or whether he simply was one of the luckier persons who avoided the most serious symptoms. Based on the currently available scientific knowledge, though, McGill now enjoys a substantial degree of immunity from serious viral complications due to his inoculation. See Benefits of Getting a COVID-19 Vaccine, CTRS. FOR DISEASE CONTROL & PREVENTION (last updated Jan. 5, 2021), https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/vaccinebenefits.html. While the vaccines, and even prior infection, have not been proven to eliminate any risk of reinfection, it is believed that the antibodies conferred by the vaccines dramatically reduce a recipient's risk of severe complications from the disease. … Considering McGill's current medical status in terms of both his recent infection and his inoculation—not just in terms of the protection he now has against the risk of COVID reinfection generally, but also against the most serious of COVID complications should McGill be infected again—the Court is not persuaded that his incarcerative setting places him at greater risk of contracting, or suffering severe complications from, COVID-19 than he would have if residing in transitional housing.”)
Death Watch: The BOP reports no new COVID-related fatalities. Inmate fatalities remain at 222. Four of these inmates died while on home confinement. BOP staff fatalities remain at 4.