As testing for COVID-19 increases in Florida prisons, so does system’s death toll

The sixth and seventh inmates to die of COVID-19 in Florida’s prisons were announced Thursday, as testing for the virus among inmates increased by 37%.

The Florida Department of Corrections did not disclose where the two deceased inmates were incarcerated.

The Santa Rosa County medical examiner confirmed the death of 64year-old David Thomas, who was doing time for various drug offenses at Blackwater River Correctional Institution, a state prison near Pensacola run by a private contractor.

He died Wednesday at Sacred Heart Hospital in

Pensacola.

The first five fatalities were all inmates at Blackwater and were confirmed to reporters by the Santa Rosa County medical examiner, not the state. Testing at Blackwater increased by one test. All fatalities were men older than 60.

Inmates’ families, advocates and lawmakers have called for more testing for weeks, worried that the already crowded and shortstaffed prison system won’t be able to contain the spread of the virus without knowing who has it.

Overnight, testing went from 447 to 615 tests completed, with the bulk of the new tests occurring at facilities with marked outbreaks such as Tomoka Correctional Institution near Daytona Beach and Sumter Correctional Institution west of Orlando.

Until recently, the protocol was to test inmates who were put in “medical isolation” for showing symptoms.

The department said Thursday that it was testing more than 155 asymptomatic inmates at Tomoka and Sumter. Inmates who opted out of testing are kept in quarantine or isolation for at least 14 days.

Five people with family members at Tomoka told the Herald that around five to seven volunteers from each dorm were tested using a rapid PCR — or nasal swab — on Wednesday.

Some results were in from the new flurry of tests, some not.

The state data shows a jump in tests at Tomoka from 131 to 217 overnight.

As of Thursday evening, 208 inmates and 146 staff members in Florida’s state prisons had been diagnosed with the disease. Another 237 inmates had tested negative. There were 14 symptomatic inmates in “medical isolation” pending testing, and 3,593 inmates were in “medical quarantine” after having contact with someone who tested positive or showed symptoms.

In one dorm of 70 men, all seven volunteers tested positive, said a woman whose son lives in the dorm. The 70 men have been locked down together for more than two weeks, with limited time allowed outside.

The men who tested positive were removed from the greater group.

“My son is disgusted,” said the woman, who spoke under the condition of anonymity. “They were very slow to test.”

Dorms without volunteers were not tested, the family members said.

Sumter has now tested 142 inmates, up from 72 Wednesday night.

A group of 72 men at Columbia Correctional in Lake City were also tested, the wife of one of the men confirmed.

About two weeks ago, that group and two other inmates were transferred from Tomoka, where there was an outbreak of cases to Columbia, which had only one staffer test positive.

The results haven’t come back yet for the bulk of the group, but one man was tested earlier after showing signs of fever.

He tested positive, said the woman, whose husband contacted her earlier in the day. State data showed Thursday night that it now had its first positive inmate.

“They should have tested before they moved them,” the woman, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, said. “Why would you take them to a compound without anyone with it without testing?”

On Thursday the department also extended its ban on visitation until May 17.

The ban, which went into effect March 11, was originally supposed to be lifted on April 5 and was then extended to April 30.