CORALVILLE – Earlier today, the department notified its partners in the jails and Sheriffs’ departments of a temporary suspension of admissions to the Iowa Medical and Classification Center (IMCC) in Coralville. IMCC is currently experiencing a rise in COVID-19 cases, and this suspension will be lifted as soon as the department believes the virus is no longer spreading at the facility. On average, the facility admits approximately 65 inmates per week from the jails.
IMCC is currently on restrictive movement as security, treatment and medical staff work to mitigate further spread of the virus. Inmates will only be out of their respective cells for a limited amount of time each day, and one cell per living unit at a time to prevent viral spread.
While IMCC staff have extensive experience treating COVID-19-positive inmates, large-scale quarantining and testing measures have been taken since an inmate in the general population section tested positive for COVID-19 last Wednesday. Additional testing for facility staff is also being conducted.
In the last week, the facility has conducted nearly 800 new COVID-19 tests, with 59 of those tests having positive results. All inmates that are positive for COVID-19 are being closely monitored while they recover in medical isolation, and those exposed to the positive inmates are held in a special quarantine status. If an inmate receives a positive test result, their emergency contacts are promptly notified by staff. The remainder of the facility remains on restrictive movement until the spread is contained.
As additional testing is conducted, it is likely additional positive inmates will be identified and placed in medical isolation as they recover. The department will continue to update these statistics daily at doc.iowa.gov/covid19.
