NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Tennessee’s Trousdale County has the highest per capita coronavirus infection rate in the U.S. and Bledsoe County has the fifth, according to an Associated Press analysis. In both counties, the high infection rates are attributable to their local prisons.
Trousdale, a county of just over 9,500 people, has reported 1,363 cases of the virus, nearly all of those at the Trousdale Turner Correctional Center run by private prison contractor CoreCivic.
The Tennessee-based company tested all inmates at the institution earlier this month, reporting that 1,299 of 2,444 inmates tested positive as did 50 of 281 workers there. Two Trousdale prisoners have died after testing positive, although the Tennessee Department of Correction has said it is asking the medical examiner to determine the exact cause of death. One inmate at the Bledsoe County Correctional Complex also died after contracting COVID-19.
The state-run Bledsoe prison had the second largest outbreak among Tennessee’s 14 prisons, with 586 of 2,316 inmates testing positive. That accounted for most of the county’s 604 cases out of a population of 14,602. State corrections officials have said 580 of the Bledsoe inmates completed 14 days of isolation without becoming ill.
Meanwhile, Tennessee’s tax revenue in April came in significantly lower than anticipated, revealing a new glimpse into the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.