A  resident at the Kansas Juvenile Correctional Complex has been identified as positive for COVID-19.

The resident is a male over the age of 15 and was a new admission to the facility in Topeka.

The Kansas Department of Corrections has been in consultation with officials from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment on the next steps to address these circumstances. As a result of that consultation with KDHE, the following steps were implemented:

• The positive individual was moved to a negative air-flow room in the KJCC infirmary
• The remainder of the living unit will quarantine in one-person rooms
• Additional testing will take place as we continue to work to control the spread and KDOC will remain diligent in monitoring other staff and residents for symptoms

“With this recent admission, we are seeing that our screening protocols are working,” Corrections Secretary Jeff Zmuda said. “We were able to keep this individual isolated from others in hopes that no others will become infected with the virus.”

Established in 1879 as the State Reform School, the Kansas Juvenile Correctional Complex is Kansas’ only juvenile prison that currently houses 144.