LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - Six more state corrections employees have tested positive for the coronavirus as the number of cases in the state prison system continues to grow.
Three employees at the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln and three employees at the state Diagnostic and Evaluation Center tested positive for COVID-19, the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services said in a news release Saturday.
With the new cases, a total of 127 state prisons workers have now tested positive for the virus with 42 of those cases coming in the past week. Sixty-four of those individuals have recovered.
The agency said on its website that 196 inmates had tested positive for the coronavirus as of Friday and one inmate had died. The state said 9.9% of the 1,979 inmates that have been tested were positive for the virus.
Health officials said 410 new cases of the virus were reported Saturday to give the state a total of 40,797 since the pandemic began. There have also been 442 deaths.
The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Nebraska has risen over the past two weeks from 317.86 new cases per day on Sept. 5 to 363.71 new cases per day on Saturday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.