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Almost everyone at one Michigan prison tests positive for COVID-19 antibodies

Angie Jackson
Detroit Free Press

Nearly all the prisoners at Parnall Correctional Facility near Jackson have tested positive for antibodies for the coronavirus, suggesting that they had COVID-19 in the past. 

As of May 22, 92% of prisoners tested at Parnall were positive for antibodies, according to Chris Gautz, spokesman for the Michigan Department of Corrections. The department offered antibody blood tests to all prisoners at Parnall about two weeks ago. Of 1,248 people tested, Gautz said 1,148 were positive.

Parnall Correctional Facility.

Parnall emerged as a national hot spot for coronavirus cases in April, when the department was still limiting COVID-19 diagnostic testing to prisoners who were symptomatic. 

MDOC has since tested its entire population — roughly 38,000 people at the start of the pandemic — for the virus using nasal swab tests. As of Wednesday evening, 3,341 prisoners had tested positive, and results for more than 9,000 tests were pending. Sixty-two prisoners have died of COVID-19. 

It wasn't known Wednesday exactly how many prisoners across the system who've tested positive for COVID-19 were asymptomatic, but Gautz said anecdotally, that number is "incredibly high."

The department in recent weeks began offering voluntary testing to its staff. Gautz said employees who sign up must undergo both the nasal swab and the antibody test. As of Wednesday, 359 staff had tested positive for the virus. Two employees have died.

More:More than 600 new coronavirus cases reported at Michigan prison

More:Michigan ranks highest in nation for prisoner deaths from coronavirus

At Parnall, 191 prisoners have tested positive for the virus so far. More than 1,200 results from the mass testing at the facility were pending Wednesday, according to MDOC. Ten prisoners there have died. 

Seventy-six staff at Parnall have tested positive, the highest number of employee cases at any Michigan prison. 

While the nasal swab test provides a snapshot in time by detecting an active viral infection, an antibody test is used to determine whether someone has had the virus at some point in the past.

MDOC has done some degree of antibody testing in at least nine of its 29 prisons. Gautz provided the following antibody results for these facilities as of May 22: 

  • Macomb Correctional Facility in Lenox Township: 788 positive and 413 negative, or 66% positive 
  • Detroit Reentry Center: 20 positive and 37 negative, or 35% positive
  • G. Robert Cotton Correctional Facility in Jackson: 106 positive and 761 negative, or 12% positive

Antibody results for other prisons were not immediately available Wednesday. Antibody testing is not mandatory, and Gautz said there is no penalty for those who decline the test.

MDOC is not using the antibody results to guide housing decisions in its prisons as the department has been doing with the swab tests, Gautz said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has warned about accuracy problems with the blood test, advises that antibody results should not be used to determine how to group people in congregate settings including correctional facilities. Scientists don't yet know the degree to which antibodies provide lasting immunity from future infection.

Dr. Matthew Akiyama, assistant professor of medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, said it's not surprising for facilities that had high infection rates earlier in the pandemic to now see high rates through antibody testing. 

"It usually takes a few weeks to develop an antibody response and now (we're) seeing the consequences of these high infection rates in congregate settings like prisons and jails," he said.

Gautz said MDOC is entering into an agreement to provide Wayne State University with prisoner virus and antibody test results for a study. He said department officials hope the research will shed light on why some prisons had few positive cases and others saw outbreaks that sickened hundreds of prisoners. The study could be useful in the event of a second wave of infections, Gautz said. 

"Obviously, the science and the understanding of antibodies is ever-evolving and so we want to collect the data, and then we'll see what happens with it down the road," he said. 

Angie Jackson covers the challenges of formerly incarcerated citizens as a corps member with Report for America, an initiative of The GroundTruth Project, with support from the Hudson-Webber Foundation. Click here to support her work. Contact Angie: ajackson@freepress.com; 313-222-1850. Follow her on Twitter: @AngieJackson23