DENVER (AP) - Widespread testing for the coronavirus will be conducted at a Colorado prison after one inmate and a staff member tested positive for COVID-19, the state corrections department said Tuesday.
The worker has not been in the Buena Vista Correctional Facility since June 30 and it has not been determined whether the new cases are connected, the department said.
There have been 631 inmates who have tested positive for COVID-19 in Colorado, 564 of them at the Sterling Correctional Facility, the state’s largest prison. Three Sterling inmates have died. No prison workers have died due to the virus.
Buena Vista had another inmate who tested positive in April, a man who was returned to the prison system from community corrections and tested while still in quarantine, the department said previously.
As a result of the new case, Buena Vista prisoners will be kept in their cells except to use restrooms and showers. The facility will be cleaned multiple times a day and inmates will continue to be required to wear face coverings, the department said.
For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms but for some it can cause more severe illness or death.
Inmates at Colorado prison will be tested for the coronavirus star
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