Three more Alabama prison workers have tested positive for coronavirus at three separate facilities, bringing the total of workers who have contracted the virus to 22, according to the Alabama Department of Corrections.
One worker at the Ventress Correctional Facility, one at the Easterling Correctional Facility and another employee at the Montgomery Women’s Community Based Facility/Community Work Center self-reported positive test results, ADOC said in a statement Tuesday.
ADOC is investigating whether any inmates or employees may have been exposed to the workers who tested positive at Ventress and Easterling prison, according to the statement.
“The individual at Montgomery Women’s Facility who tested positive has been on leave for an extended period and had not reported to work while contagious. No staff members or inmates at Montgomery Women’s Facility potentially could have been exposed to COVID-19 through this individual,” according to the statement.
Of the 22 prison workers who tested positive for the virus, six have been cleared to return to work.
Nine inmates in seven state prisons have also tested positive for coronavirus as of Tuesday afternoon, and 116 of the state’s approximately 22,000 inmates had been tested as of Monday, according to ADOC.
News of the new COVID-19 cases among prison staff comes after a woman serving at the Birmingham Women’s Community Based Facility and Community Work Center died Monday after falling ill and being taken to a local hospital, according to the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office.
Colony Nicole Wilson, 40, complained of feeling sick while at the Birmingham work release center and was taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital, where she died at 10:24 a.m. Monday, according to the coroner’s office.
An ADOC spokeswoman told APR on Tuesday that Wilson was not showing symptoms of the virus before she died and so had not been tested for coronavirus.
