Mass testing begins at second North Carolina prison

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Mass COVID-19 testing began on Friday at a second North Carolina state prison, keeping to a policy of making widespread diagnoses only when incremental case numbers for those behind bars warrant it.

Testing will be performed on all 420 inmates at the medium-security Caswell Correctional Center, located 70 miles (113 kilometers) northwest of Raleigh near the Virginia border. Results from a private lab are expected early next week, the Department of Public Safety said in a news release. That will likely be followed by separating those testing positive in medical isolation and broad disinfecting within the prison.

The department said testing is occuring at Caswell because 19 prisoners and 19 staff members there have now tested positive since mid-April. It’s also because the cases aren’t isolated to one section of the prison, the release said, but rather offenders in 12 of its 14 dormitories. A nurse at Caswell who died earlier this month had tested positive weeks before, according to a coalition of North Carolina media outlets who interviewed her husband. Her death has received attention from the state Labor Department and Senate leader Phil Berger.

A similar mass testing occurred in April at the dormitory-style Neuse Correctional Institution in Goldsboro, where 466 prisoners tested positive, three of whom died. The remaining prisoners there testing positive are now presumed recovered based on federal and state health guidelines, the department said.

“We will do all we can to stamp out this stubborn outbreak at Caswell Correctional with hard work and strict attention to medical protocols,” Commissioner of Prisons Todd Ishee said. “We have done it before at Neuse and we will do it again.”

Prison leaders have declined to perform tests on all roughly 32,000 incarcreated prisoners statewide, but rather are expanding testing at locations based on advice from health experts. The department is, however, offering free testing to all correctional and probation officers and other prison and juvenile justice workers. The department extended the testing program Friday through July 31.

Overall, more than 650 prisoners have tested positive since the pandemic began and five have died, acccording to division data. The prison system has barred visitation and the receipt of offenders from county jails. Limited prison-to-prison transfers have resumed, however, in preparation for when the court system reopens.

The potential increase in cases at Caswell comes as the reported number of COVID-19 cases statewide grew by more than 1,050 between Thursday and Friday to almost 26,500 overall, with about 860 related deaths. The day-over-day increase, among the largest to date, happened as the state recorded another 16,000 completed tests to 391,000 overall, according to Department of Health and Human Services data.

More than 450 of the COVID-19-related deaths in North Carolina have involved patients in nursing homes, DHHS said Friday. Six homes have recorded more than 20 patient deaths, including 25 at The Laurels of Hendersonville. State government began releasing streamlined data on nursing homes and other congregate facilities last month after complaints when some officials refused to do so, citing patient privacy.

More than two dozen media outlets, including The Associated Press, sued Gov. Roy Cooper and two Cabinet secretaries this week in state court, seeking public records related to COVID-19 asked for in formal requests but that haven’t been fulfilled to date. In a media briefing with reporters Thursday just before the lawsuit’s disclosure, Cooper said his administation was committed to following public records laws and responding to requests.

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