The pandemic COVID-19 is spreading through New York City jails — as city officials report a total of 46 confirmed cases in the jail system with a dire warning of an exponential increase in the days to come.
A spokesperson for the Department of Correction said Sunday there were 17 sick staffers and 29 infected inmates.
The news comes a day after the federal prison system reported its first inmate testing positive for coronavirus while being housed in a Brooklyn federal jail.
Nearly another five dozen inmates from Rikers Island and other city jails were being monitored for symptoms.
Board of Correction interim chairwoman Jacqueline Sherman warned Saturday of a harsh reality: the number of cases “is certain to rise exponentially.”
“It is likely these people have been in hundreds of housing areas and common areas over recent weeks and have been in close contact with many other people in custody and staff,” Sherman wrote.
The number of sick staffers and inmates spiked over the last two days — amid grim warnings from the unusual partners of civil rights advocates and corrections officers’ union about the jail’s environment being a powder keg of spread.
The top doctor at Rikers warned a “storm is coming” just days ago.
Sherman wrote in a letter to all state jail officials and the city five district attorneys that their “best efforts will not be enough to prevent viral transmission in the jails.”
The Legal Aid Society has called on the city to cut loose all vulnerable inmates in on non-violent crimes.
“Shared dorms and bathrooms are the opposite of social distancing, and the situation at Rikers Island will only get worse so long as our leaders in government refuse to act,” said Tina Luongo, the attorney-in-charge of the group’s criminal defense practice.
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration has said it will release a few dozen inmates and review other cases of people who are most vulnerable to the potentially deadly disease.
One civilian investigator with the DOC already has died from the virus.