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Hutchinson Prison Locked Down Due To 2nd COVID-19 Outbreak

Michael Coghlan
/
flickr Creative Commons

KANSAS CITY — A Kansas prison has been locked down due to a coronavirus outbreak affecting nearly 100 inmates and staff at the facility, the government announced Wednesday.

Kansas Department of Corrections Secretary Jeff Zmuda said none of the 84 inmates and 10 staff members at the Hutchinson Correctional Facility who tested positive this week are showing symptoms. Fifteen inmates and seven staff members previously tested positive at the prison, which houses about 1,880 men.

Some inmates will remain locked in their cells because of the new outbreak, while others will be relocated to the prison in Lansing, where a medical unit has been set up to handle COVID-19 cases. Lansing was the site of an earlier outbreak in which more than 900 people became infected.

The announcement came as the Kansas Department of Health and Environment reported 817 more confirmed cases of COVID-19 since Monday for a total of 32,547, and eight more deaths for a total of 395. The number of infections is believed to be far higher because many people have not been tested, and experts believe people can have the virus without feeling sick.

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