Nevada inmates at prison in Arizona test positive for virus

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A prison official in Nevada said Friday that 17 state inmates being held at a private prison in Arizona have tested positive for the new coronavirus for the second time in about a month.

State Department of Corrections spokesman Scott Kelley said the 17 were among 69 inmates from Nevada found to have COVID-19 during a first round of testing July 8 at the Saguaro Correctional Center run by CoreCivic.

The other 52 inmates who initially tested positive retested negative, and none of the 30 who had initially tested negative came up positive during new testing, Kelley told the Las Vegas Review-Journal .

Nevada has 99 inmates being held at the for-profit prison in Eloy, Arizona. The facility between Phoenix and Tucson houses nearly 2,000 inmates.

Nevada prisons officials say the Nevada inmates are housed in one unit, with no contact with those from other states, and those who tested positive were in cells separate from those who tested negative.

In Nevada, Kelley said 26 of the 12,109 inmates at the department’s 18 prison, camp and transitional housing facilities have tested positive for the new coronavirus, and 86 staff members. No deaths have been reported.