Nearly 3,300 prisoners in four US prisons are coronavirus-positive-96% asymptomatic

(Reuters) -When the first case of the new coronavirus emerged in prison in Ohio, the director in charge felt like she was fighting a ghost.

“It was not always possible to identify where all cases came from,” said Annette Chambers Smith, Director of Rehabilitation and Corrections, Ohio. As the virus spread, they began extensive testing.

They started with a Marion correctional facility in the central north of Ohio that houses 2,500 prisoners. Many of them are healthy and old. After testing 2,300 coronavirus inmates, they were shocked. Of the 2,028 positive cases, nearly 95% had no symptoms.

“It was very amazing,” said Chambers Smith, who oversees 28 state correctional facilities.

With the expansion of mass coronavirus testing in prisons, many inmates are showing no symptoms. According to a Reuters review, 96% of the 3,277 coronavirus-positive inmates were asymptomatic in four state prison systems (Arkansas, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia) in an interview with authorities. This is one of 4,693 tests with symptom outcomes.

This figure is asymptomatic-contagious but not a physical illness-but causes the spread of the virus not only in state prisons that house 1.3 million inmates nationwide, but also in communities nationwide. The latest evidence suggests that it is possible. Gloves. The numbers also reinforce the question as to whether suspicious-only testing really catches the spread of the virus.

Dr. Leana Wen, assistant professor of emergency medicine at George Washington University, said the findings of the Reuters news agency: Due to lack of testing and oversight, it is much higher than we know today. ”

Some people who are diagnosed asymptomatic by a coronavirus test may then develop symptoms, researchers say.

The United States has more prisons than any other country, with a total population of approximately 2.3 million in prison in 2017, half of which are in state prisons. In federal prisons and local prisons, a small number of people are detained and they are usually detained for a relatively short period of time while awaiting trial.

State prison systems in Michigan, Tennessee, and California have also begun mass testing-checking a large number of inmates for coronavirus infections, even if they show no signs of illness-but asymptomatic prisoners Does not offer a certain number of.

Tennessee said most of the positive cases did not show symptoms. In Michigan, state officials said a “significant number” of the 620 prisoners who tested positive for coronavirus were asymptomatic. The California prison system did not release the number of asymptomatic prisoners.

Each state manages multiple prison facilities. In Ohio, for example, there are 49,000 prisoners in 28 facilities. A total of 3,837 inmates were coronavirus-positive at 15 of these institutions. However, the state has not yet provided results for the symptoms of 1,809 people and has not specified the total number of tests performed across the prison system.

Arkansas and Tennessee have also taken a targeted approach by conducting extensive testing at several facilities. Michigan, North Carolina, California, and Virginia each start from one facility.

Most state prisons did not provide age or other demographic details of people diagnosed with a positive coronavirus. Coronavirus has more than 200,000 people worldwide.

VAST UNDERCOUNT

Reuters investigated all 50 state prison systems. Of the 30 respondents, most test only symptomatic inmates, suggesting that they may have significantly underestimated the number of coronavirus infections.

Florida and Texas have more inmates than Ohio, with a total of 931 reported cases. New York, the epicenter of the outbreak in the United States, reports 269 positive cases out of 51,000 inmates. All three states test only symptomatic prisoners.

“Prison officials almost certainly underestimate the number of COVID cases in prisoners,” said Michelle Ditch, an orthodontist and senior lecturer at the University of Texas. “As the experts talk to us in our free-world community, the only way to stay ahead of this outbreak is to carry out extensive testing.”

Prison officials in Florida and Texas said they were following the guidance from the US Centers for Disease Control along with state health officials when testing only inmates who had the virus. The New York Department of Corrections said the policy of only testing symptomatic prisoners “reflects civilian testing procedures.”

Tennessee took a proactive approach last week after 12 inmates tested positive at the Breadsaw County correctional facility in Pikeville. The State Department of Corrections tested 3,503 prisoners at the Breadsaw, Northwest Correctional Facility, and Thani Center Industrial Facility.

As of Friday, 651 were positive and most of them were asymptomatic, the department said.

“It makes it more difficult to manage pandemics,” said Mark Stern, a former head of medicine at the Washington Department of Corrections and a faculty member at the University of Washington’s School of Public Health. “There are many asymptomatic people.”

Following a recent surge at the Neuse correctional facility in Goldsboro, NC, state correctional authorities tested all 723 prisoners last week. According to the State Department of Public Security, 98% of the 444 infected with the virus were asymptomatic. One prisoner died in prison.

Similarly, a mass test at two prisons in Arkansas (the Cummins unit in the city of Grady and a community correction center in Little Rock, the state’s capital) found 751 infected prisoners and almost all were stateless. The station says. The total number of inmates tested was not provided.

Arkansas prisons have been faced with outbreaks such as scabies and chickenpox, but these episodes were easy to manage because prisoners showed obvious symptoms, a spokeswoman for the Arkansas Department of Corrections said. Dina Tyler said. “But the virus is so symptomatic that many people don’t know. It’s very difficult to contain,” she said.

“A 24-hour turnaround is important”

The Lakeland Correctional Facility in Michigan has the state’s oldest and most vulnerable prisoner. When the number of coronavirus cases surged, prisons saw a surge in infection and death. As of April 23, nine Lakeland prisoners died at COVID-19, accounting for one-third of the deaths in 29 state prisons in Michigan.

State data show that nearly half of Lakeland’s 1,400 prisoners suffer from chronic underlying illness. Many are in wheelchairs, and minimal security facilities in southern Michigan have their own geriatric ward for large older people.

On Tuesday, the prison plans to test all 400 inmates in the geriatric ward, testing the rest of the facility by the end of the week. Of the 971 tested so far, 642 (about 66%) were positive. State authorities refused to reveal the number of asymptomatic patients.

“We know that mass tests can make numbers soar and look bad,” said Kris Gautz, a spokesman for the Michigan Department of Corrections. “But I don’t think there is a system without a large number of prisons in this country. They may not be as rigorous as ours.”

All inspected inmates are usually quarantined in a room or unit until a test result is returned, usually in a day. “Twenty-four hour turnarounds are very important,” as inmates can return to the general public if they take a negative test.

Forty inmates have died in prison systems in seven states with mass inspections.

As the coronavirus spreads behind regulation, rights groups and public defenders say they are demanding the release of nonviolent, elderly, medically high-risk prisoners, fearing they will yield further. I will. Thousands of people have been liberated, crowded, and often unsanitary conditions raise concerns that prisons and prisons can be vectors for this disease.

“It’s worse than inland cruise ships,” corrections expert Stern said, referring to a stranded cruise ship overwhelmed by the coronavirus infection.

(Linda So from Washington, Grant Smith from New York, Brad Heath additional report, edited by Jason Szep)