ST LOUIS — Confirmed coronavirus cases are spiking in Missouri prisons.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that there have been 333 new cases among prisoners and Department of Corrections staff so far this month.
Previously, the prison had reported 661 cases cumulatively. Cases have increased the most at the prisons in Bonne Terre and Pacific, Missouri.
A Corrections Department spokeswoman says the spike in confirmed cases is largely because of increased testing at prisons. Spokeswoman Karen Pojmann says all staff and prisoners in Missouri have been tested at least once.
She says many patients have been asymptomatic, and mass testing identified most cases.
