OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - An inmate at a state work-release center in Omaha tested positive for the coronavirus, marking the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in a Nebraska prisoner, officials said.
The Nebraska Department of Correctional Services said in a news release that an inmate at the Omaha Community Corrections Center tested positive Tuesday for the virus, leading officials to place the entire prison under quarantine. That means inmates will be confined to their rooms and can’t participate in work detail or work-release jobs until they are medically cleared.
“It was never a matter of if this would happen, but when,” state prisons director Scott Frakes said. “Putting the facility under quarantine is the smartest move we can make. We want to be completely thorough in determining who had close contact with this single inmate.”
Staff members who have had close contact with the infected inmate will be required to quarantine, officials said.
The Omaha center is one of two work-release prisons in the state and houses 175 inmates.
While the Omaha inmate is the first Nebraska state prisoner to test positive for the disease, nine prisons systems employees have tested positive.
Despite the confirmed case in an inmate, Gov. Pete Ricketts said Wednesday he doesn’t plan to expand testing for other prisoners. The decision has drawn criticism from prisoner-advocacy groups, who say inmates are at risk because of their close confines.
Ricketts has said inmates will only get tested if they show coronavirus symptoms, similar to the approach the state has taken with other residents. State officials are giving priority to first responders, medical workers and people who show multiple symptoms, followed by people who have fewer symptoms.
“Inmates are being treated just like everyone else,” he said at his weekday news conference.
Ricketts also announced that the federal government has given Nebraska about 400 doses of remdesivir, a drug that appears to help coronavirus patients who have severe symptoms and are on ventilators.
“We think it’s going to be somewhat useful as far as helping patients,” said Dr. Gary Anthone, Nebraska’s chief medical officer.
Meanwhile, the state Department of Health and Human Services reported Tuesday that three more people had died from the virus, bringing the total to 103. Another 120 cases were confirmed Tuesday, bringing the state’s total confirmed cases to 8,692.
For some infected people, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, the virus can cause severe illness or death. But for most people, it causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, that clear up in two to three weeks.
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Associated Press writer Grant Schulte contributed from Omaha.
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