More than one in three federal inmates tested for coronavirus have come back positive

The coronavirus pandemic continues to spread rapidly behind bars, even under harsher-than-usual lockdown protocols.

Of the 16,839 federal inmates who have been tested, 6,060 have been diagnosed with coronavirus, according to the Bureau of Prisons.

More than 2,200 tests are still pending, as of Wednesday.

“As testing resources have become more available, we are testing our inmate population more broadly, which is helping us to quickly identify and isolate positive cases to rapidly flatten the curve when outbreaks occur,” a BOP spokesperson told ABC News.

“As a result of our expanded testing capabilities and the BOP’s robust pandemic plan, we currently have more staff and inmates recovered from COVID-19 than are positive.”

Among the hardest-hit facilities are Federal Correctional Institution Butner in North Carolina, where 614 inmates and eight employees are actively positive. Among the positive prisoners were 85-year-old John Marrone and 61-year-old Mark E. Hebert, who both died Saturday.

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