WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – More than half of the guards and other employees working in US federal prisons have declined to be vaccinated for the novel coronavirus despite the inoculations being offered to everyone, US Bureau of Prisons (BOP) Director Michael Carvajal said during a congressional hearing on Thursday.
“Everyone in the Bureau of Prison, employee-wise has had the opportunity, been offered the vaccine, and approximately 49 percent have accepted it,” Carvajal said in testimony to the US House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science.
US Congressman Dutch Ruppersberger cited a recent report from Johns Hopkins University saying that coronavirus cases are often detected among staff before prisoners.
Carvajal replied that he and his staff continue to encourage everyone to be vaccinated but that legally they can not force prison employees to take the jab.
There are 125,371 federal inmates in Bureau of Prisons-managed institutions and 13,700 in community-based facilities. The BOP said that it employs 36,000 people, of whom 1,374 have tested positive for the coronavirus.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
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