Thousands of inmates in Ohio prisons have been diagnosed with coronavirus.
As testing in facilities around the state continues, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (ODRC) is now reporting at least 3,890 prisoners have tested positive as of April 29. At least 5,676 have been tested total.
The total inmate population as of Tuesday was 47,820, the ODRC spokeswoman tells CNN.
“The reason that you are seeing numbers out of our prisons, that are much, much higher than other places is because we made a decision to go test everybody. And when we've got a hotspot we move in and we’ve surged testing in,” Gov. Mike DeWine said during a press briefing yesterday.
There have been 27 confirmed Covid-19 related inmate deaths.
"Because we are testing everyone – including those who are not showing symptoms – we are getting positive test results on individuals who otherwise would have never been tested because they were asymptomatic," JoEllen Smith, a spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, said.
"Approximately 95% of the positive cases are asymptomatic,” Smith added.
According to the data, 419 prison employees also have tested positive and two died due to the virus.