Fifty-two inmates in New York City jails tested positive for coronavirus as of Tuesday morning, up from 39 cases reported on Monday, according to the latest figures from the city Department of Correction.
Additionally, the number of DOC staff who have tested positive for the virus increased from 21 to 30.
A spokeswoman for the department did not clarify how many of those cases were reported on Rikers Island, which houses more than 5,200 inmates, or from other jail facilities in the city.
The DOC was keeping 56 inmates under medical supervision as of Monday.
A department spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for up-to-date numbers on how many prisoners are being watched by medical staff.
On Monday, the DOC announced that it would reopen a shuttered jail facility on Rikers Island to separate inmates who have coronavirus symptoms from the rest of the jail population.
The Eric M. Taylor Center was closed earlier this month as part of a plan to totally shut Rikers down over the next six years.
Meanwhile, the city government, public defenders and district attorneys’ offices have been working to identify vulnerable Rikers inmates for release.
The spike in sick inmates comes as defense attorneys report that their clients on Rikers aren’t given enough space to practice social distancing — and are being forced into close quarters with inmates who are showing symptoms consistent with COVID-19.
One public defender said life at Rikers is like a “f–king slave ship,” Scott Hechinger of Brooklyn Defender Services said in a series of tweets sent on Tuesday railing at conditions at the sprawling jail complex.
“Social distancing in jail is impossible,” Hechinger tweeted. “Sanitation is non-existent. No gloves. No mask. Just hundreds of people coughing on each other.”
The DOC did not immediately respond to a request to respond to Hechinger’s statements.
In a statement, the president of the Correction Officers Benevolent Association said the new numbers are proof that Mayor Bill de Blasio should set up a centralized testing center on Rikers for guards.
“And the DOC needs to step up the speed of its distribution of masks, gloves and hand sanitizers to our members,” COBA President Elias Husamudeen said. “Time is clearly not on our side.”
The call for a centralized testing center was echoed on Tuesday by 27 City Council members who signed on to a letter to de Blasio, according to a release from Queens Councilman Robert Holden’s office.
“Our correction officers put their health on the line each and every day, and they alone bear the burden of unknowingly spreading this highly contagious virus to their colleagues or inmates,” Holden said in the release.
“They can also spread the virus in their home communities when they leave Rikers Island each day. We must provide them with reassurance by working to test every officer as soon as possible and ensure their safety, the safety of other employees, the safety of inmates, and the safety of all New Yorkers.”