Staff and visitors must wear face coverings now at the Blair County Prison, and the is jail hosting COVID-19 vaccine clinics for inmates and county employees. As of this weekend, 17 of the inmates… all of them who are awaiting transfer to a state facility… have signed up for the vaccine. Prison officials believe it could be due to a belief amon inmates that after they’re transferred to a state facility, they will be allowed more privileges because of their vaccine status. That believe is likely founded in an announcement earlier this month by the state Department of Corrections, that it would halt in-person visits for the inmates who are not vaccinated against COVID-19, and housing changes would be done to assure that unvaccinated inmates are housed together. In the local lockup, inmates aren’t required to wear face masks inside their cells, but they must wear them pretty much everywhere else. The Blair County Prison is also quarantining new inmates for 48 hours.