One inmate at the Fort Dodge Correctional Facility tested positive for COVID-19 Wednesday, prompting concern about more cases surfacing due to the nature of the facility.

Two staff members have also tested positive at the facility so far, according to Iowa Department of Corrections statistics. It’s unclear if the positive inmate and the positive staff members are directly related.

“As expanded testing takes place across the facility for both staff and inmates, it is likely that more positive cases will be found and placed in medical isolation,” the press release said.

The inmate, a man between age 18 and 40, has been in medical isolation since first notifying staff he was not feeling well on Tuesday, according to a press release from the Iowa Department of Corrections. He has been experiencing mild symptoms.

Staff at the prison have placed the inmate’s residential unit into quarantine status, prompting further testing. Other sections of the prison will be placed on restricted movement status until contact tracing is finished and expanded testing can be conducted.

It’s unclear whether the prison will test all staff and inmates.

While under restricted movement, inmate privileges like video visitation are suspended. Family members are encouraged to check for updates at doc.iowa.gov.

Though another inmate at the prison tested positive in early June, they were new to the prison and had been in quarantine before release to the general population, part of the DOC’s process for introducing new inmates to facilities. The inmate was transported back to the Iowa Medical and Classification Center (Oakdale) in Coralville, the facility now used as intake for new inmates since the pandemic started.

As the pandemic started, prisons shut off new inmate admissions from mid-April to mid-May to control the spread.

As of Wednesday, 163 inmates at the Fort Dodge facility had been tested. Fort Dodge’s prison is the largest in the state system, with 1,119 current inmates. Its capacity is 1,162.

Staff at all Iowa prisons have been required to wear masks at all times for months. Inmates are advised, but usually not required, to wear their provided masks. Temperatures are randomly checked on inmates on a regular basis as staff follow precautions to ensure they aren’t bringing the virus into prisons.

Inmates are typically only eligible for testing when they display symptoms or have been exposed to other known cases in the system. The vast majority of COVID-19 cases up until now have been isolated to the IMCC.

Updates on COVID-19 statistics are available online at doc.iowa.gov/COVID19.