TOPEKA, Kan. — The Kansas health department says a coronavirus variant did not cause a fast-moving outbreak at a state prison that infected dozens of inmates and staff.
Health department spokesperson Kristi Zears said Monday that testing shows the COVID-19 outbreak at the Winfield Correctional Facility in south-central Kansas was not caused by virus variants first detected in the United Kingdom or South Africa. The state Department of Corrections reported that the Winfield prison had 14 active cases among staff and 112 among its population of about 450 inmates as of Thursday.
Public health officials had feared a variant because the outbreak developed only over a few days.
