LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Kentucky health officials are working to curtail two major COVID-19 outbreaks in state prisons.
The Kentucky Department of Corrections said 716 people at the Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex tested positive for the coronavirus. That's nearly half the people incarcerated there.
Eighty staff members are also positive.
Andrea Love has two loved ones in custody at the West Liberty prison and said while they're isolated and have masks, staffing shortages have led to delayed meals and fewer guards on the floor.
"It's a big risk," Love said. "It's a health risk and definitely a safety risk for the inmates and the (corrections officers) as well."
The Kentucky Department of Corrections tells WDRB News during lockdown, inmates receive three meals a day. Two are hot meals and the third is a sack meal. All three meals are provided to them in their cells.
The other outbreak is at the Roederer Correctional Complex in La Grange, which has nearly 350 active cases. Corrections officials said they're working with the department of public health and "will continue to take aggressive steps to protect the safety and security of all staff and inmates."
The Department of Corrections says they're monitoring the outbreaks at each facility and working to "ensure that proper protocols are being followed to protect the justice-involved population, as well as correctional personnel."
Love says after testing positive for the virus, one loved one was isolated in a cell and the other was moved to a different part of the prison.
Corrections officials say in the event of a large outbreak at any of their prisons, inmates are placed on lockdown status to allow for mass testing to be accomplished and then also to accommodate moving the population based on test results.
Officials say positive inmates are isolated from the rest of the prison and inmates are separated into distinct housing areas: positive inmates, negative inmates with direct exposure, and negative inmates with no exposure.
Love tells WDRB News her loved one who has been in a cell alone claims no nurses have checked on him.
The Department of Corrections says medical staff are closely monitoring inmates who are medically vulnerable and they are checked regularly throughout the day. If any inmate becomes symptomatic for any illness, not just COVID-19, and the prison medical staff cannot handle their care adequately, they are transferred to the hospital.
Gov. Andy Beshear commuted the sentences of nearly 2,000 people to reduce the prison population due to the way the virus spreads. Still, state reports show 39 people have died in Kentucky prisons from COVID-19.
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