Top executives for private companies that run immigration detention centers testified before a congressional subcommittee on Monday, and the first question was about COVID-19 outbreaks inside an Arizona facility run by CoreCivic.

The question about the Eloy Detention Center came from the Democratic chairwoman who’d already accused detention contractors of not taking virus outbreaks seriously.

The government has made public the number of detainees with COVID-19 at Eloy. But not CoreCivic workers.

CoreCivic President and CEO Damon Hininger later told Arizona Republican Debbie Lesko that nearly half the staff had tested positive for the virus at some point since the pandemic began.

“As of last week we had about — less than 100 that were positive and were going through the appropriate protocols to self isolate,” he said.

Hininger also told Lesko that he thinks the number of infected staff at Eloy is reflective of a “little bit of an uptick” of coronavirus cases in Arizona. 

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