FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - A Kentucky state prison is in the midst of a COVID-19 outbreak as officials prepare to vaccinate older inmates statewide.
New cases in the state’s prison population have more than doubled since March 3, and most of those positive tests were at the Kentucky State Penitentiary, according to state officials.
On March 3, corrections officials reported 245 new cases, but by Tuesday that had grown to 628 new cases, Executive Cabinet Secretary J. Michael Brown said Tuesday at the governor’s pandemic briefing.
Brown said 555 of those cases were at the Kentucky State Penitentiary in western Kentucky. Eleven of the state’s 14 facilities have zero cases, he said.
State officials will soon begin vaccinating inmates 70 and older at all the state’s facilities, but timing will depend on incoming supplies of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, Brown said. He said they would go out to each of the state’s 14 facilities as supply becomes available.
Gov. Andy Beshear said 11 Kentuckians had recently traveled to an area of Africa where the Ebola virus has reemerged. None of them has been deemed a high risk for exposure to that virus, Beshear said.
The state reported 819 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday and 24 new deaths.
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