Missouri prison employee tests positive for the coronavirus
A Missouri Department of Corrections employee has tested positive for the new coronavirus.
The man works at Southeast Correctional Center in Charleston and last entered the facility April 7, the department said.
He is now in quarantine.
Six other staff members have also contracted COVID-19. The Missouri Department of Corrections said those employees didn’t work at prisons or tested positive while on unrelated leave.
One prisoner has died from the virus.
The inmate, in his 50s, was transported in early March from a prison in Cameron to Western Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in St. Joseph to be treated for other medical conditions.
He was taken to a Kansas City area hospital on March 19 where he tested positive for the coronavirus. Subsequent tests, according to the department, were negative.
The man died April 2.
Officials in St. Joseph said the man’s death is included in Buchanan County’s coronavirus cases because that is where he last resided.
There have been more than 4,300 cases of the coronavirus in Missouri including 114 deaths, according to data released Monday.
In the wake of the pandemic, advocates have urged officials to release certain inmates from jails and prisons, citing the inability to practice social distancing, an aging elderly population behind bars and a lack of sanitary practices.
Eighteen inmates and 21 staff at Lansing Correctional Center in Kansas have contracted the virus. On Sunday, a resident at a Wichita work release facility tested positive, prompting 113 inmates to be relocated to Lansing for isolation.
