Ohio has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic but corrections officials in the state say that a single state prison is also one of the most concentrated outbreak sites in the country. NPR reports that the Marion Correctional Institution has confirmed at least 109 confirmed cases among its staff. According to Ohio’s Department of Rehabilitation & Correction, they “are testing everyone—including those who are not showing symptoms,” and as a result they “are getting positive test results on individuals who otherwise would have never been tested because they were asymptomatic.”
Of all the prisons in the Ohio system, Marion Correctional Institution tested and found that 73% of their inmates had COVID-19. That means 1,828 incarcerated people are now in isolation inside of the prison they were already in. This makes the prison the single-largest concentration of known COVID-19 infections in the U.S. On a positive note, no deaths due to the virus have yet been reported at the facility.
Daily Kos community member joeknapp wrote earlier about how Ohio corrections officials were reporting high asymptomatic rates. But these numbers are intense. According to Ohio’s Department of Rehabilitation & Correction, as of April 19 they have tested around 3,000 inmates and found 2,400 positive cases. And 244 prison staff have also tested positive for the virus. They have confirmed six inmates and one staff member death as a result of COVID-19.
According to NPR, Ohio’s testing process has been more thorough and wide-reaching than any other state. According to Ohio, incarcerated members make up over one fifth of the entire state’s current confirmed COVID-19 cases. The Columbus Dispatch reports that on Monday, along with the news of new spikes in confirmed cases, Gov. Mike DeWine ordered schools across the state closed for the remainder of the school year.
This news comes just a day after the Michigan Department of Corrections reported that 520 of 805 prisoners tested, tested positive for the 2019 novel coronavirus.