FORT WORTH (WBAP/KLIF)- The Federal Medical Center, a federal prison in Fort Worth is seeing a surge in COVID-19 cases.
According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website, 636 FMC inmates tested positive for COVID-19, which is a little over 40% of the prison’s total population. The website also states 5 inmates have died and 4 have recovered.
Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley said they are actively working on a plan to enhance communication so that county health officials can get updated numbers.
Whitley said they had a conference call with local, state and federal leaders about how to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 at this facility.
“We are assessing the current status and a plan to include daily communication so the county doesn’t get hit with these staggering numbers and we need to make sure there are procedures in place to allow these inmate to isolate properly,” said Whitley.
Whitley said FMC Staff will be recommended to get tested daily as well. “We need to change this around because the guards leave their shifts and they go back into the community and then if these patients need to be hospitalized they will end up at JPS and that will put a lot of pressure on hospital facilities,” he said.
Whitley said the biggest concern at the FMC is the communal type living areas. “They name their units after Texas cities so the ‘San Antonio’ unit had about 240-250 people and of that about 200 had tested positive so that’s close to 80%,” he said. “That was the first indication we had a big issue.”
The FMC has almost 1,500 prisoners and 320 staff members. Whitley said the last thing they want to do is relocate prisoners to another facility.
“One or two units didn’t have any positive cases so it seems like they have the ability to isolate at least some of those people who didn’t test positive and for the ones who have tested positive, for the most part, it will have to run its course,” Whitley said.
Whitley said a detailed plan should be announced later this week.
