By MARGERY A. BECK-Associated Press
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - An inmate at a state work-release center in Omaha has tested positive for COVID-19, marking the first inmate in Nebraska to be confirmed through testing to have the disease, officials said.
The Nebraska Department of Correctional Services said in a news release that an inmate at the Omaha Community Corrections Center tested positive Tuesday for the virus, leading officials to place the entire prison under quarantine. That means inmates will be confined to their rooms and can't participate in work detail or work-release jobs until they are medically cleared.
"It was never a matter of if this would happen, but when," state prisons director Scott Frakes said. "Putting the facility under quarantine is the smartest move we can make. We want to be completely thorough in determining who had close contact with this single inmate."
Staff members who have had close contact with the infected inmate will be required to quarantine, officials said.
The Omaha center is one of two work-release prisons in the state and houses 175 inmates.
While the Omaha inmate is the first Nebraska state prisoner to test positive for the disease, eight prison systems employees across the state have tested positive.
Meanwhile, the state Department of Health and Human Services reported Tuesday that three more people had died from the virus, bringing the total to 103. Another 120 cases were confirmed Tuesday, bringing the state's total confirmed cases to 8,692.
For some infected people, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, the virus can cause severe illness or death. But for most people, it causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, that clear up in two to three weeks.