Saturday, July 18, 2020 | 7:47 p.m.
Sixty-nine out of a total of 99 Nevada inmates being held in a private prison in Arizona have tested positive for the coronavirus, the Nevada Department of Corrections announced today.
The inmates, who are imprisoned at Saguaro Correctional Center -- a for-profit facility owned by CoreCivic -- were all asymptomatic when they were tested on July 8. They remain so and no one has required hospitalization, said Dr. Michael Minev, NDOC's medical director, in a news release.
The prison is located in Eloy, Ariz., about 400 miles miles south of Las Vegas. Inmates who’ve tested positive were separated from those who have not.
“CoreCivic is working with NDOC medical and programming staff to monitor, assess, and treat Nevada offenders in their custody,” said Charles Daniels,” the state’s director of corrections.
Nevada provided the prison with kits to test the Nevada inmates on July 8, and the positive results came back this week.
Prior to these COVID-19 positives, only 18 Nevada inmates had tested positive. “One of the lowest rates in the nation,” NDOC said in the release.
As of Saturday, 591 Arizona inmates had tested positive for COVID-19, with at least five confirmed deaths, according to a state dashboard online.
It wasn’t clear how many of those inmates are housed in for-profit facilities.
