(Photo courtesy WCF)
An inmate at the Winfield Correctional Facility has tested positive for COVID-19, according to a news release from the Kansas Department of Corrections Tuesday.
The man is over the age of 20, according to KDOC. No other information about the man was released.
KDOC said mandatory mask protocol for staff was implemented on July 7 for both staff and inmates.
The man and three additional men, who were roommates of the man who tested positive, were moved to Lansing Correctional Facility COVID-19 units as per department protocol. Contact tracing will occur to identify what staff and residents have been in direct contact with the man.
A small group of inmates are isolating at WCF as a precaution.
Additional testing will take place at WCF.
“The health and safety of our staff and residents is one of our top priorities,” Kansas Department of Corrections Secretary Jeff Zmuda said in the news release. “As with the other positive cases that have been identified in the past several weeks at other facilities, we are moving quickly to mitigate the risks.”
The Winfield Correctional Facility opened in 1984 on the site of what was then the Winfield State Hospital and Training Center. With a capacity of 554, the facility serves only minimum-custody, adult males.
According to the City-Cowley County Health Department Tuesday, 174 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in the county since the pandemic began. Active cases have risen by five from Friday’s report to 29.
Active cases were as high as 53 by the end of July.
On July 21, following the second reported death in the county due to the virus, the City-Cowley County Health Department reported a vast majority of county cases have been confirmed in Ark City.
Recoveries now number 143 and county-wide deaths remain at two.
The county has tested 3,155 people as of Tuesday morning. Cowley County has a population of 34,908 people as of July 2019, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Statewide, cases have reached 31,730 according to Monday’s report from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, including 1,911 hospitalizations, 387 deaths and 294,939 negative tests since a national emergency proclamation was issued by the White House on March 13.
Overall, 326,669 people have been tested in Kansas since March. The state population is just over 2.9 million.
KDHE reports 101 total cases confirmed so far in Sumner County, 301 in Butler County and 5,207 in Sedgewick County.
Kay County, Oklahoma, has totaled 251 cases so far and remains at 11 deaths.
For the state of Oklahoma, cases have reached 44,728 and deaths now total 618.
