TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — At least 89 coronavirus cases have been reported at the Topeka Correctional Facility since Jan. 8 to make the prison the largest current hotspot in the state.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment says no other school, day care, long-term care facility, business, sport or religious gathering had as many coronavirus cases as the Topeka prison had in the past two weeks. The next largest outbreaks in the state were reported at two long-term care facilities that each reported 25 cases.
The number of COVID-19 cases reported at the Topeka facility is more than three times as many as the total number of cases reported at the Hutchinson, Harvey County and El Dorado prisons together. Those other prisons reported a total of 26 cases between them.
Mari Flowers, whose daughter is being held at the Topeka Correctional Facility, said she worries about how many people move in and out of the facility. She said her daughter has had to quarantine several times because of a positive case in the group she is being held with.
“They locked them down, but yet it wasn’t working,” Flowers said.
