How the coronavirus spread through one immigration facility

Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego was the site of a big outbreak at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s 221 detention centers. Workers and detainees reveal shortcomings in how the private company that manages the center handled the spread of the disease: There was an early absence of facial coverings, and a lack of cleaning supplies. Symptomatic detainees were mixed with others, Elliot Spagat reports for the Associated Press.

Consider this story from the article:

“Gregory Arnold walked into the warden’s office April 1 as the novel coronavirus ripped through one of the largest immigration detention centers in the United States. Waiting with about 40 guards to begin his shift, he heard a captain say face masks were prohibited.

Incredulous, he and a guard who recently gave birth wanted to hear it from the boss. Arnold told Warden Christopher LaRose that he was 60 years old and lived with an asthmatic son.

`Well, you can’t wear the mask because we don’t want to scare the employees and we don’t want to scare the inmates and detainees,’ Arnold recalls the warden saying.”

KJ