NEW BOSTON, Texas - The Texas Department of Criminal Justice announced Friday that it is changing the way it reports cases of COVID-19 among the prison population.
"As of today, the numbers reflect the current locations of pending, negative and positive cases among offenders. We have also added categories for recovered offenders, deaths and released. Today (Friday) there are 175 TDCJ employees, staff or contractors who have tested positive for COVID-19 and 358 offenders who have tested positive," TDCJ's website states.
The site now includes categories for offenders in local hospitals and in a prison medical facility. The number of inmates who have tested positively for COVID-19 at the Telford Unit is reported Friday at 21, down from 54 on Thursday.
TDCJ reported Friday that five tests are pending on Telford inmates and that seven current Telford inmates have tested negatively. The agency reported nine negative tests Thursday.
TDCJ reports Friday that 1,163 inmates are in medical restriction at Telford and 26 are in medical isolation at Telford. The agency reported Thursday that 57 inmates were in medical isolation at the Telford Unit.
Medical restriction is for people who may have been exposed to a disease and do not know it, or they may have the disease but do not show symptoms, TDCJ's site states. Medical isolation is used to separate sick and contagious people. TDCJ reported Wednesday that 13 staff at the Telford Unit have tested positively for the virus.