An employee at the Mountain View Correctional Facility in Charleston has tested positive for COVID-19, state officials said, but there’s believed to be little risk of transmission to others at the prison.

The Maine Department of Corrections said Wednesday that the employee had traveled out of state on a personal trip and then was tested on Monday. The positive test result was received Tuesday, officials said, and the employee has not returned to work.

The employee has not been at the facility since Aug. 21, officials said, and because of that period of time away from the prison, the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention said it believes there’s little risk that the virus has been transmitted to other staff or inmates at the facility.

The Department of Corrections said it would not release further information about the staffer in order to protect the employee’s privacy.

One other department employee has tested positive for the virus during the pandemic – an employee at the Bolduc Correctional Facility in Warren in March.

The Maine CDC said there have been 4,734 confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 in Maine and 134 deaths linked to the illness during the pandemic. The area causing the most concern in recent days has been York County, including at the jail in Alfred. A jail employee attended an Aug. 7 wedding in Millinocket that has been linked to 158 cases of the illness and three deaths.

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