15 employees at prison in Columbia test positive for coronavirus, SC officials say
In a week, South Carolina prisons have gone from zero inmates with the coronavirus to nine who have tested positive for COVID-19, the Department of Corrections said.
The number of prison employees who reported having the coronavirus has also increased, including more than a dozen workers at one prison in Columbia.
Through Sunday night, 43 staff members have self reported testing positive for COVID-19, the SCDC said.
Fifteen of them are employees of the Broad River Correctional Institution, which is one of 21 prisons across the state operated by SCDC.
Seven of those Broad River employees have recovered and been cleared to return to work, SCDC spokeswoman Chrysti Shain told The State. She did not say if they have returned but said the approval came from SCDC medical staff.
Approximately 5,000 people work at the Department of Corrections, and there are 17,828 inmates in South Carolina.
No inmates at Broad River have tested positive, but four inmates and four staff members at nearby Kirkland Reception and Evaluation Center in Columbia are confirmed to have the coronavirus, SCDC reported.
The first prisoner in South Carolina to test positive for COVID-19 was locked up at Kirkland. After a second Kirkland inmate was diagnosed with the virus the prison was placed on quarantine lockdown, according to SCDC.
Because of the two-week lockdown that began April 21, no new male inmates will be accepted into the Reception and Evaluation Center, officials said.
Although three employees at Camille Graham Correctional Institution reported having the coronavirus, new female inmates are still being received at the Columbia facility where no prisoners have tested positive, according to SCDC.
The South Carolina prison currently with the most inmates confirmed to have COVID-19 is Allendale Correctional Institution with five, SCDC reported.
On Friday, the Hampton housing unit at Allendale was placed on 14-day quarantine after an inmate there tested positive for the COVID-19, officials said.
The inmate was tested when admitted to a local hospital on April 21 for unrelated reasons, and the positive result came back three days later, according to SCDC. Officials said no staff members at Allendale have tested positive for the virus.
As of Sunday, no other South Carolina prisons have inmates who tested positive for COVID-19.
Other than the three prisons in Columbia, officials said the other correctional institutions where staff has reported having the coronavirus includes Lee (3), Turbeville (2), Wateree River (2), Goodman (1), Livesay (1), Manning (1), McCormick (1), Trenton (1), and Tyger River (1).
Additionally, eight non-institutional staff members have tested positive for COVID-19, SCDC reported.
SCDC said it’s following DHEC’s guidelines to “ensure the health and safety of inmates and staff.”
Officials also previously said all inmates and staff have been given two masks, and they are encouraged to wear them whenever they are in close contact with anyone else. Additionally, any patient with respiratory symptoms will be assessed by SCDC medical staff and tested for COVID-19 — if warranted, according to a statement.
Anyone permitted to enter one of the prisons has their temperature taken and is screened for symptoms, officials previously said.
Since testing began in March, DHEC reported 837 positive COVID-19 cases in Richland County, most of any county in South Carolina. Nineteen people have died after testing positive in Richland County, tied with Greenville County for the most coronavirus-related deaths in the state, according to DHEC.
On Sunday, 237 new cases of the coronavirus were reported in South Carolina, bringing the statewide total to 5,490 confirmed COVID-19 cases in all 46 counties, according to DHEC.
DHEC also announced that eight more people died after testing positive for the coronavirus, raising that total to 174. State health officials described 146 of the people as elderly, 28 patients were middle-aged.
“There is currently no cure or vaccine,” the South Carolina Emergency Management Division said.
There have been 45,271 combined negative tests at DHEC’s public health laboratory and at private labs.
As of Monday morning, 2,982,933 people worldwide have been diagnosed with coronavirus and 207,270 people have died, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States leads the world with 965,933 people who have been diagnosed with the novel virus. In the U.S. 54,877 deaths have been reported, including 17,280 in New York City, according to Johns Hopkins.
This story was originally published April 27, 2020 at 1:37 PM.
