COVID-19 infections top 600 at state women's prison

TAFT — A COVID-19 outbreak has hit a minimum-security women's prison here hard.

Most of the more than 800 inmates at the Eddie Warrior Correctional Center have tested positive, according to daily statistics released by the Oklahoma Corrections Department.

The count of currently positive inmates stood at 626 at noon Wednesday. Most are asymptomatic, officials said. Three are hospitalized.

Another eight inmates were described as recovered and 16 staff at the facility were described as having reported positive tests.

The COVID- 19 outbreak at the prison has made the Muskogee area a top U.S. hot spot.

The New York Times on Thursday listed Muskogee at No. 1 among metro areas in the nation with the greatest number of new cases, relative to their population, in the last two weeks. Taft and Muskogee are about 10 miles apart by car.

Inmates at the prison live in open dorms. Officials have responded to the outbreak by increasing supplies of personal protective equipment, cutting visitation and quarantining and isolating inmates. At noon Wednesday, 172 inmates were in isolation and 623 were in quarantine, according to the statistics.

From inside the prison, inmates are complaining of chaotic conditions in quarantine and isolation.

"What's happening is inhumane," said Nancy Dalquest, who had heard twice by phone from a friend imprisoned there. "They're on top of each other."

Her friend described in tears being moved in the middle of the night into a single dorm with more than 160 other infected inmates, said Dalquest, who lives on Grand Lake.

Her friend reported several inmates are sleeping on the floor and fights break out because of frustration over waiting in line to go to the toilet or use the phone.

"I have never heard her so desperate and so helpless and hopeless," Dalquest said.

Corrections officials are taking complaints about the facility very seriously and have investigated every one, spokesman Justin Wolf said Thursday.

He called false the rumors about inhumane conditions, particularly the one that 500 overheated inmates are dying of COVID- 19 in their bunks in a gym without air conditioning.

The reality is that only 31 women were in the gymnasium at one time as a quarantine measure and the windows were open and big fans were used to move the air, he said.

"One of the other rumors is that any number of core services aren't being provided, or that meals aren't being provided or the meals are not adequate. All those rumors are also false," he said.

In total, more than 1,400 inmates in state prisons have tested positive since the pandemic began, according to the statistics.

No state prison inmate has died of COVID- 19, officials said.

The second worst outbreak also has been at a women's prison, the Mabel Bassett Correctional Center in McLoud.

As of noon Wednesday, 101 inmates were listed as currently positive and 114 were listed as recovered.

Fifteen inmates from the Joseph Harp Correctional Center in Lexington were hospitalized Wednesday because of a COVID-19 outbreak there.