RAY BROOK — After several weeks of no COVID-19 cases at the Federal Corrections Institute at Ray Brook, four inmates and one staff member have been confirmed to have the virus, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Prisons have been hotbeds for transmission of the virus in New York, and this federal prison peaked this spring at six inmates and nine staff. Corrections officer union leaders said delayed action from the BOP caused this spread, which landed one CO in the hospital on a ventilator for 21 days.

In May the BOP announced plans to move thousands of new U.S. Marshals Service inmates to quarantine sites at federal prisons around the country — including FCI Ray Brook.

A letter signed by northern New York’s House representative Elise Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, as well as New York’s senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer, both Democrats, expressed “concern and disappointment” that inmates would not be tested before being transferred to the quarantine sites.

State prisons, which have also seen many COVID-19 cases statewide, have been less infected in the North Country.

As of June 20, the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision’s breakdown of virus cases shows zero cases or tests in inmates at Adirondack Adolescent Correctional Facility in Ray Brook.

A corrections officer there tested positive in early April but is out of isolation now, according to John Roberts, Northern Region vice president for the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association, a corrections officers union.

DOCCS data shows one negative test at Altona Correctional; six negative tests at Bare Hill Correctional in Malone; one recovered, 22 negative and one pending test at Clinton Correctional in Dannemora; one recovered, 23 negative and one pending test at Franklin Correctional in Malone; three negative tests at Gouverneur Correctional; six negative and one pending test at Riverview Correctional in Ogdensburg; and one negative test at Watertown Correctional.

Statewide, 1,289 DOCCS staff, 517 inmates and 76 parolees have been diagnosed with COVID-19. Of the inmates, 488 have recovered and are out of isolation. Five DOCCS staff, 16 inmates and four parolees have died from COVID-19.