COVID-19 'outbreak' declared after 88 inmates infected at Mercer County jail
An "outbreak" of COVID-19 has infected nearly 30 percent of the Mercer County Correction Center's 302 inmates, county officials acknowledged.
Positive cases of the deadly virus jumped from five as of May 12 to 88 nine days later, county officials said, with results of least another 50 tests pending.
Officials insisted "nearly all" the inmates who are positive for the virus were asymptomatic, which is contradicted by what dozens of inmates and their loved ones told The Trentonian in interviews over the past week.
Some of the inmates exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms were allowed to remain in general population for weeks until positive test results returned, increasing the chances that they'd infect other inmates, attorneys and inmates said.
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