State Completes Testing All Prisoners For COVID-19

From :

By Laina G. Stebbins - May 24, 2020

The Michigan Department of Corrections (DOC) also issued an update on its large-scale COVID-19 testing efforts.

Starting mid-April, the DOC partnered with the Michigan National Guard to test every prisoner at the state’s six prisons in the Upper Peninsula.

After concluding that process in just five days, the department turned to Michigan’s lower peninsula on May 11 and has been testing two to four facilities every day since then.

As DOC spokesperson Chris Gautz had told the Advance earlier this week, that testing was completed Friday. Gautz told the Advance that Michigan could be the first in the country to test every single prisoner at its state-owned correctional facilities for COVID-19.

DOC: Michigan will soon be 1st state to test all prisoners for COVID-19

“While the final results will likely not be known until next week as the labs process all of the results, so far, out of 38,130 prisoners who were tested at its 29 prisons, there are 3,263 prisoners who have tested positive, 18,316 who have tested negative, with 16,551 pending test results,” a Friday statement from the DOC reads.

The department also plans to go back and retest all previously positive cases. Gautz did not respond to an inquiry about how much the process will ultimately cost the department.