Lansing Prison has been identified as the biggest COVID-19 cluster in Kansas, but state officials say the outbreak was declared contained as of June 1.

Secretary Jeff Zmuda, with the Kansas Department of Corrections, expressed his thanks for the service of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and the Kansas National Guardsmen who helped out during the outbreak.

“The Kansas National Guard is full of highly trained, professional public servants who are ready at a moment’s notice to serve their fellow Kansans,” Zmuda said. “We were extremely impressed with their willingness and ability to adapt to their new surroundings and face each task with strength and dignity. On behalf of the department, I want to sincerely thank them for their work.”

“Secretary Lee Norman and Phil Griffin, Director of the Bureau of Disease Control and Prevention at KDHE, have been amazing partners to our agency,” Zmuda said. “They have brought the health expertise that we needed to make sure that our staff received the most up-to-date information on the virus and how to keep the men, women and youth in our care safe.”

With the spread of the virus under control, some activities can resume. This includes residents returning to their jobs in food service, laundry and maintenance activities as well as essential private industry jobs.  Things that expose inmates to the community, including visitation, volunteers, mentors, and non-essential private industry jobs will not be resumed at this time.

“While we are resuming many activities, we fully recognize that this virus will still be present for the foreseeable future, so we plan to maintain the mitigation strategies that have been implemented at each of our facilities,” Zmuda said. “This resumption of activities is a first step to normalizing operations at Lansing, but one we will do with an abundance of caution and care.”