RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina has announced plans to test all state prison inmates for COVID-19 over the next two months.
The move to do so comes after a court ordered the state to come up with a plan to offer a coronavirus test to its entire prison population. Officials say the testing will cost an estimated $3.3 million and take at least 60 days.
Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper said all staff members also be tested.
Statewide, numbers released Thursday from North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services showed 1,333 new cases of coronavirus and a third straight day of record-high hospitalizations at 857.
