NYC fed jails have only tested dozen for virus: report

Only a dozen inmates out of the thousands held in federal jails in New York City have been tested for coronavirus, according to a new report filed by the federal Bureau of Prisons Friday.

Six of them came back positive, the agency said.

As of Thursday, only five inmates were tested for the potentially deadly coronavirus at Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Center, which houses 700. Four of the five tested positive for the virus at the jail, the report said.

The first federal inmate to test positive was at the MDC on March 22.

At Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, where another 1,700 federal detainees are in custody, seven inmates were tested and two came up positive for the virus as of Friday, the report said.

The report is the first time the agency has released the number of inmates tested, as opposed to simply releasing the number of inmates who are infected.

Advocated and those with dealings in the federal prisons were sharply critical of the Bureau of Prisons for what the low numbers revealed.

“You’ve only tested five inmates? It’s criminal. Obviously more people in the facility have the virus than five. How do you not conduct widespread testing?” said defense attorney Bruce Barket, who repped Nick Tartaglione, the former Briarcliff Manor cop at MCC.

In the federal lockup in Brooklyn, over 100 inmates have shown COVID-19 symptoms, according to Federal Defenders Attorney-in-Charge Deirdre Von Dornum.

A Brooklyn federal judge on Thursday ordered the BOP to start issuing reports about COVID-19 positive inmates twice a week.

Across the country, 75 federal inmates and 39 staffers for the agency have tested positive for coronavirus, according to the agency’s website.