Total of 53 inmates at Telford test positive

NEW BOSTON, Texas — The Texas Department of Criminal Justice reported Friday that 53 inmates at the Barry Telford Unit in New Boston are positive for COVID-19.

The agency reports that 55 inmates are being housed in medical isolation.

Medical isolation is “for people who are sick and contagious. Isolation is used to separate ill persons who have a communicable disease from those who are healthy,” according to TDCJ.

TDCJ reported Friday that 145 inmates are in medical restriction. Medical restriction is “used to separate and restrict the movement of well persons who may have been exposed to a communicable disease to see if they become ill. These people may have been exposed to a disease and do not know it, or they may have the disease but do not show symptoms,” TDCJ’s website states.

TDCJ notes that fluctuations in numbers for particular units can be explained “by a dramatic increase in the number of medically recovered offenders. That has an impact of the active positive and medical isolation categories as well. There are also number additions that include testing from the targeted asymptomatic offender testing conducted over the past several weeks as well as the first two days of results from Strike Team testing,” TDCJ’s website states. “Pending, positive and negative offender testing numbers also include medically ordered testing and are listed by the current location of the tested individual which is not necessarily the location where they were tested.”