Colorado state health officials say that two inmates transferred to a federal prison in Florence arrived with active COVID-19 infections. 

The new cases – along with a staff member who recently tested positive – were reported at Federal Correctional Institute Florence, which houses roughly 900 inmates under one roof and 300 more in an adjoining, minimum-security prison camp, according to the Bureau of Prisons website. It’s unclear whether the inmates and staff member were in the camp or the prison.

Three other employees at the facility previously tested positive for the novel coronavirus, but have since recovered, said Bureau of Prisons spokesman Justin B. Long. Those staff infections were spread “across many months,” said Lauren Errico, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

Because the inmates arrived from elsewhere, and given the delay between staff members’ infections, Errico said that the new cases fall short of the state’s definition of an outbreak.

“For outbreaks, we seek evidence of spread occurring within the facility. This was not the case among staff at this facility,” Errico said in a statement.

The medium-security prison and adjoining prison camp are part of the Federal Correctional Complex, a campus that also includes a high-security federal prison and United States Penitentiary, Administrative Maximum Facility, commonly known as Supermax. Supermax and the high-security prisons have yet to report positive cases among inmates or staff, the website shows.

The cases at the federal campus are among 92 known infections in Fremont County, according to county’s public health website. Forty other people with the disease have since recovered, the website shows.

The Bureau of Prisons has been criticized for its response to the coronavirus pandemic, including in a Department of Justice inspector general’s report that found sweeping deficiencies at neighboring prisons in Santa Barbara, Calif., where more than 1,000 inmates have contracted the disease.

In a lawsuit filed in May, the American Civil Liberties Union accused the agency of “mismanaging one of the worst public health catastrophes” in the country, branding conditions at the California prisons “cruel and unusual punishment.”

Bureau data show that 2,374 federal inmates and 515 staff members are actively infected nationwide. The agency website reports that 8,273 inmates and 715 staff members have recovered. The fallout includes 106 inmate deaths and one staff member death attributed to the disease.

Elsewhere in Colorado, five inmates have active infections at Englewood Federal Correctional Institute in suburban Denver, and four inmates and one staff member have since recovered, the agency website shows.

Long outlined safety precautions required at all federal prison facilities, including “enhanced screening and quarantine/isolation process” for inmates who enter and depart the prisons.