All inmates at North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women to be tested for coronavirus

A few inmates in one housing unit were showing symptoms last week, according to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety, and all 227 women housed there were tested over the weekend. The 45 who tested positive have been separated and placed in medical isolation, while those who tested negative but were potentially exposed to the virus were placed under medical quarantine, with close observation and twice daily temperature checks.

Earlier this spring, around 90 offenders in a different housing unit at the prison tested positive for the virus.

Since the pandemic began, a total of 877 of the 31,500 offenders in state prisons have tested positive, and a total of 764 are presumed recovered.

DPS is in the middle of an effort to test all inmates in state prisons for the virus.