The Missouri Department of Corrections (MODOC) says 19 offenders in a quarantined housing wing at Southeast Correctional Center (SECC) in Charleston have tested positive for COVID-19. Following positive test results for three of the wing’s residents earlier this week, the Department of Corrections tested 146 people — all 64 housing wing residents and 82 staff members. None of the staff members tested positive.

22 inmates within Missouri prison test positive for coronavirus
According to MODOC, the affected SECC housing wing has been quarantined since April 15, when the first resident with COVID-19 symptoms was tested and relocated to an isolation unit. While the wing is in quarantine, the department says residents of the other three wings of the housing unit have been screened, with temperature checks. All offenders with COVID-19 symptoms and their cell mates are relocated and housed in separate cells in an isolation unit pending test results.
Three SECC staff members who tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this month, as well as all staff with whom they had close contact, are in quarantine at home.
The department says no offender currently housed in a state prison other than SECC has tested positive for COVID-19.
Earlier this month, the state prison system announced that a former St. Joseph prisoner in northwest Missouri died from complications caused by the respiratory virus. The Western Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center inmate was diagnosed with COVID-19 after being transferred to a Kansas City area hospital March 19th. Though he later tested negative twice for coronavirus, he remained hospitalized for other medical conditions.
Earlier story:
Missouri prison inmate tests positive for coronavirus
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