The Alabama Department of Corrections on Tuesday said that a 41-year-old inmate who died Monday after falling ill was not showing symptoms of COVID-19 and so was not tested for the virus.
Colony Nicole Wilson, 41, complained of feeling sick while at the Birmingham Women’s Community Based Facility and Community Work Center and was taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital, where she died at 10:24 a.m. Monday, according to the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office.
ADOC spokesperson Samantha Rose, in a response to APR on Tuesday, said that Wilson was not tested for COVID-19 because she was not showing symptoms of coronavirus and that more information about her death would be available once the investigation into her death is complete.
Asked whether Wilson was tested for COVID-19 after her death, Rose declined to answer the question and said that “this does not fall under our purview nor do we have any influence over this type of decision” and directed the question to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences, which conducts autopsies of inmates.
Rose did not immediately respond to questions about whether ADOC knows if Wilson has been tested post-death, or how the department could take proper precautions to safeguard staff and other inmates at the Birmingham women’s work center without knowing whether Wilson had the virus or not.
Attempts to reach the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences late Tuesday afternoon were unsuccessful.
Asked whether inmates at the Birmingham women’s work center had been placed on quarantine following the death, Rose said that because Wilson was not showing symptoms of the virus and was not under quarantine at the time after being exposed to someone who had coronavirus, the facility has not been placed on quarantine.
