More than 100 inmates test positive for COVID-19 at one SC prison
More than 100 inmates have been infected with COVID-19 in an outbreak at an Upstate prison.
As of Sunday night, 124 inmates at the Tyger River Correctional Institution had been diagnosed with the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, the largest outbreak at any correctional facility in the state.
Another 14 cases can been reported among Tyger River’s nearly 200 staff, according to numbers released by the S.C. Department of Corrections. The outbreak at the medium-security prison in Enoree accounts for one-third of all active cases among inmates in the state’s prison system.
The number of cases has flared up in the past two weeks, a department spokeswoman said, as South Carolina tries to contain the spread of the virus through the prison population.
“It has been a herculean effort to do so,” said department spokeswoman Chrysti Shain. “The warden there has shown tremendous leadership.”
The virus has spread quickly because of Tyger River’s open nature. Inmates there live in a dorm-like atmosphere, with many shared spaces and hallway bathroom facilities. That’s made it easy for the virus to spread among the 907 people incarcerated at the Enoree facility, and difficult for staff to quarantine individual prisoners.
Initially, inmates from Tyger River were being sent to a dedicated COVID-19 isolation unit at Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville, where many other coronavirus patients in the penal system have been sent. But now officials have dedicated a full living unit at Tyger River to isolating inmates who have tested positive.
Other inmates have been quarantined in their living units, which can hold around 200 inmates each. Each inmate has been issued two masks — one to wear and one to wash, Shain said. Inmates are encouraged to disinfect shared spaces every two hours, and their vitals are checked twice a day.
Prison staff have even deployed a fog machine to get disinfectant into hard-to-reach spaces of the facility, Shain said. S.C. National Guardsmen are also providing assistance at the prison.
But the virus has continued to pose a serious threat. Last week, 58-year-old Tyger River inmate Stanley Smith died a week after being hospitalized with coronavirus-related symptoms. He was the third Department of Corrections inmate to die from COVID-19.
This story was originally published July 6, 2020 at 3:35 PM.
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