Seventy-five percent of COVID-19 cases in Sumter County are among prisoners and Villages residents.
As of Monday, the county that contains the vast majority of Villages residents was reporting 233 cases of the potentially deadly virus. Of those, 70 were identified as Villages residents and at least two – Carol Lynch and Debbie Butler – have succumbed to the virus.
But the majority of Sumter County’s COVID-19 cases have been identified at the Sumter Correctional Institution, located at 9544 County Road 476B in Bushnell.
In fact, 45 percent – 104 cases – have been identified at the facility that has a capacity of 1,639 inmates. Of those, 92 are inmates and 12 are staff members. Also, more than half of the facility’s inmates – 922 – are in medical quarantine, with another inmate being kept in medical isolation, according to the Florida Department of Corrections.
All told, Bushnell is reporting 112 cases of potentially deadly virus, meaning only eight residents of the community of 3,100 people who call the county seat home have been identified with the virus.
The federal prison in Coleman also is reporting three COVID-19 cases – one inmate and two staff members. They comprise all but one of the cases reported in the city of less than 1,000 residents.
Of the 61 prisons listed on the Florida Department of Corrections report, only the Tomoka Correctional Institution in Daytona Beach is reporting more COVID-19 cases – 128 inmates and 19 staff members. Another 1,162 inmates at the facility are in medical quarantine and two others are in medical isolation.
Two prisons in Ocala also are reporting Coronavirus cases. One staff member at both the Marion Correctional Institution and the Lowell Correctional Institution have tested positive, the report says.