23 inmates and three staff at southeast Missouri prison have the coronavirus
Twenty-three inmates at Southeast Correctional Center have tested positive for the new coronavirus, according to the Missouri Department of Corrections.
After three people tested positive last week, the department tested 146 inmates and staff, spokeswoman Karen Pojmann said. Twenty more inmates tested positive.
All of the residents of the wing were relocated to an isolation unit in a separate building, Pojmann said.
On April 13, a staff member at the prison, located in Charleston, tested positive for COVID-19. Since then, two more have contracted the virus.
A prison employee at Western Missouri Correctional Center and another at Women’s Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center have also tested positive.
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.
The department said fabric masks have been distributed to all staff and inmates.
In Kansas, correctional facilities in Wichita, Topeka and Lansing have reported cases of the coronavirus. At Lansing, 66 staff and 57 residents have contracted the illness. Of those, 33 have recovered, the Kansas Department of Corrections said.
