Twenty-one people at the state prison in southeast Missouri’s Bonne Terre have tested positive for the coronavirus. State Department of Corrections spokesperson Karen Pojmann says 16 inmates and 5 employees – all asymptomatic – have tested positive for COVID-19.

Coronavirus outbreak at southeast Missouri prison

The findings are part of facility-wide coronavirus testing at the 2,600-bed at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center.

Mass testing, or sentinel testing, of inmates and employees at all Missouri prisons — regardless of symptoms or the presence of known cases — began May 26.

Next week, the department is doing testing at three places – a treatment center and a maximum-security prison in mid-Missouri’s Fulton and the minimum-security prison in northwest Missouri’s St. Joseph.

Three Missouri prisons will reopen to visitors next week with some restrictions. Starting next Thursday, Algoa Correctional Center in central Missouri’s Jefferson City, South Central Correctional Center in Licking and Chillicothe Correctional Center in northwest Missouri will begin allowing visitors again.

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