In four U.S. state prisons, nearly 3,300 inmates test positive for coronavirus -- 96% without symptoms
When the first cases of the new coronavirus surfaced in Ohio’s prisons, the director in charge felt like she was fighting a ghost.
“We weren’t always able to pinpoint where all the cases were coming from,” said Annette Chambers-Smith, director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. As the virus spread, they began mass testing.
They started with the Marion Correctional Institution, which houses 2,500 prisoners in north central Ohio, many of them older with pre-existing health conditions. After testing 2,300 inmates for the coronavirus, they were shocked. Of the 2,028 who tested positive, close to 95% had no symptoms.
“It was very surprising,” said Chambers-Smith, who oversees the state’s 28 correctional facilities.
As mass coronavirus testing expands in prisons, large numbers of inmates are showing no symptoms. In four state prison systems — Arkansas, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia — 96% of 3,277 inmates who tested positive for the coronavirus were asymptomatic, according to interviews with officials and records reviewed by Reuters. That’s out of 4,693 tests that included results on symptoms.
The numbers are the latest evidence to suggest that people who are asymptomatic — contagious but not physically sick — may be driving the spread of the virus, not only in state prisons that house 1.3 million inmates across the country, but also in communities across the globe. The figures also reinforce questions over whether testing of just people suspected of being infected is actually capturing the spread of the virus.
“It adds to the understanding that we have a severe undercount of cases in the U.S.,” said Dr. Leana Wen, adjunct associate professor of emergency medicine at George Washington University, said of the Reuters findings. “The case count is likely much, much higher than we currently know because of the lack of testing and surveillance.”
Some people diagnosed as asymptomatic when tested for the coronavirus, however, may go on to develop symptoms later, according to researchers.
The United States has more people behind bars than any other nation, a total incarcerated population of nearly 2.3 million as of 2017 — nearly half of which is in state prisons. Smaller numbers are locked in federal prisons and local jails, which typically hold people for relatively short periods as they await trial.
State prison systems in Michigan, Tennessee and California have also begun mass testing — checking for coronavirus infections in large numbers of inmates even if they show no sign of illness — but have not provided specific counts of asymptomatic prisoners.
Tennessee said a majority of its positive cases didn’t show symptoms. In Michigan, state authorities said “a good number” of the 620 prisoners who tested positive for the coronavirus were asymptomatic. California’s state prison system would not release counts of asymptomatic prisoners.
VAST UNDERCOUNT
Reuters surveyed all 50 state prison systems. Of the 30 that responded, most are only testing inmates who show symptoms, suggesting they could be vastly undercounting the number infected by the coronavirus.After a recent spike in cases at the Neuse Correctional Institution in Goldsboro, North Carolina, state correctional officials tested all 723 prisoners last week. Of the 444 who were infected by the virus, 98% were asymptomatic, the state’s department of public safety said. One inmate has died at the prison.
Similarly, mass testing at two Arkansas prisons — the Cummins Unit in the city of Grady and the Community Correction Center in the state capital Little Rock — found 751 infected inmates, almost all of them asymptomatic, the state corrections department said. It did not provide the total number of inmates who were tested.
Arkansas’ prisons have faced contagious disease outbreaks before, such as scabies and chickenpox, but those episodes were easier to manage because inmates showed overt symptoms, said Arkansas Department of Corrections spokeswoman Dina Tyler. “But with this virus, you have no idea because so many are asymptomatic. It makes it very challenging to contain,” she said.
‘24-HOUR TURNAROUND IS CRUCIAL’
Michigan’s Lakeland Correctional Facility houses some of the state’s oldest and most medically frail prisoners. When coronavirus cases surged, the prison saw a spike in infections and deaths. As of April 23, nine Lakeland inmates had died from COVID-19, accounting for a third of the deaths across Michigan’s 29 state prisons.
Nearly half of Lakeland’s 1,400 prisoners suffer from chronic underlying health conditions, according to state data. Many are in wheelchairs, and the minimum-security facility in southern Michigan has its own geriatric unit for its large elderly population.
On Tuesday, the prison tested all 400 inmates in the geriatric ward and plans to test the rest of the facility by the end of the week. Of the 971 tested so far, 642, or about 66%, were positive. A state official declined to disclose how many were asymptomatic.
“We know mass testing is going to make our numbers spike and might make us look bad,” said Chris Gautz, spokesman for the Michigan Department of Corrections. “But I don’t think there’s another prison system in the country that doesn’t have large numbers. They just might not be testing as rigorously as we are.”
All tested inmates are quarantined in their rooms or units pending the test results, which usually come back in a day, he said. “The 24-hour turnaround is crucial” because once an inmate tests negative, they can return to the general population, he said.
“They’re worse than landlocked cruise ships,” Stern, the corrections expert, said, referring to stranded cruise ships that have been overwhelmed by coronavirus infections.
Editor note
New York City and other large cities like new york are also similar to a stranded cruse ship that is overwhelmed.
There are not just thousands of people in the US that have asymptomatic with NO SYMPTOMS.
There are Millions.
Please note my previous post about the arc labs antibody test for the corona virus.
About the covid-19 antibody test
This test has a disclainer.
HERE IS WHY THE ARC LABS COVID-19 TEST IS USELESS!!!!
"The antibody tests are not able to distinguish whether the antibodies were generated in response to COVID-19 or several other non-SARS-COV-2 corona virus strains such as HKU1, NL63, OC43 or 229E,".
The corona virus is a very common virus. The covid-19 corona virus is a new virus.
SARS-COV-2, HKU1, NL63, OC43 or 229E are also corona viruses that have infected the US population.
Millions of people have the antibodies for SARS-COV-2, HKU1, NL63, OC43 or 229E corona viruses.
The antibody test CANNOT distinguish between the COVID-19 and all these other previous corona viruses.
So if you get the test and it shows you have antibodies it DOES NOT MEAN YOU HAVE HAD THE COVID-19 WUHAN VIRUS!!!!!
If this is the test they are giving in the prisions their conclusions are also invalid.
In other words their covid-19 test for antibodies that shows inmates with no symptoms is totally invalid because the antibody test is invalid.
So how do they know in a hospital or anywhere that you have the COVID-19 wuhan virus?
It would seem by not relying on any COVID-19 test.
It would seem strickly by observering the symptoms.
The symptoms can be different than the flu or similar to the flu it would seem.
This just gets more and more convoluted and complicated.
UNTIL A VALID COVID-19 ANTIBODY TEST IS AVAILABLE DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME OR MONEY getting the ARC LABS covid-19 test for $75.00 or more!
Don't rely on the arc labs antibody test.
It can give you a false positive and a false sense of knowing you had the covid-19 virus.
This worthless test should not be allowed to be given to anyone.
This is an example of one of many companys who are profiting from the covid-19 panic crisis.
Its just SNAKE OIL in a test, just like the guy who goes from town to town in a wagon that stands up in the wagon holding a bottle of something called,
DOCTOR WU's CURE ALL FOR EVERYTHING.
If you've got an ailment this is fix for your problems.
Just today buy one and get one free!
A product of Wuhan China by the Dr WU medicine show inc.
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