Virus cases in Tennessee prisons rise, testing ramps up

By KIMBERLEE KRUESI and ADRIAN SAINZ
Associated Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Officials say the number of COVID-19 cases among inmates in seven Tennessee prisons has jumped to more than 750 as a round of mass testing begins at a CoreCivic facility northeast of Nashville.

Tennessee’s Department of Correction said in a news release that eight inmates have been hospitalized among the 756 prisoners who have tested positive statewide for the illness caused by the new coronavirus.

No deaths have been reported, and the vast majority of the positive cases are not symptomatic.

Mass testing of all inmates has begun at the CoreCivic-operated Trousdale Turner Correctional Center, where 93 prisoners have tested positive.

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PIKEVILLE, Tennessee (WDEF) – By far, the most positive tests have come from the Bledsoe County Correctional Facility on the Cumberland Plateau.

The current count of cases there is:

2,322 tests

583 positive

1,703 negative

36 test results pending

The state prison on the mountain accounts for all but about a dozen case in Bledsoe County right now.

And the only positive case so far at the Hamilton County jail is a federal prisoner who was transferred from Bledsoe Correctional.