COVID-19 cases in Lexington skyrocket to 529, driven largely by federal prison outbreak
The number of people in Fayette County infected by the novel coronavirus skyrocketed to 529 Thursday, a single-day increase of 72 cases from Wednesday.
The vast majority of those new cases are inmates at the Federal Medical Center in Lexington, where more than 229 inmates at the federal prison on Leestown Road have contracted the highly contagious respiratory disease.
Kevin Hall, a spokesman for the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department, said of the 72 new cases, 63 were inmates at the federal prison, which has struggled to contain the outbreak there since the first positive cases were reported in early May.
The 72 new cases in 24 hours is one of the largest single-day increases in positive coronavirus cases in Fayette County since the outbreak began in March.
One inmate has died.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons website, six employees have also tested positive for COVID-19.
In addition to the Federal Medical Center, the website also says an inmate at Lexington-based Dismas Charities, a community-based program, has also tested positive for coronavirus.
Roughly 16 percent of the prison’s estimated population of 1,426 inmates have tested positive. According to the Bureau of Prisons website, the prison has 1,223 inmates in five buildings and an additional 203 inmates are at a minimum security camp on the Leestown Road campus.
The jump in the number of positive cases at the prison comes after the city of Lexington and the health department put pressure on the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons to increase testing. Earlier this week, the health department sent more than 200 tests to the facility.
On May 7, after days of silence, the bureau of prisons admitted that it had only conducted limited testing of inmates and none of employees. In early May, only inmates that had symptoms were tested, prison officials said at the time.
After state and federal elected officials intervened, federal prison officials agreed to send more tests to the facility so all inmates can be tested. Earlier this week, it also allowed more employees to be tested, a chief concern of public health officials who are trying to clamp down on the virus’ spread in the community as more Kentucky businesses begin to reopen.
This story was originally published May 14, 2020 at 3:04 PM.
