Colorado officials have not found additional cases of the COVID-19 South African variant identified last week in a state prison, they said Tuesday, but samples from other inmates will be fully processed in the coming days to make sure.

None of the three people at the Buena Vista prison – two staff members and one inmate – had been vaccinated before contracting the variant strain, state epidemiologist Rachel Herlihy said during a news conference with Gov. Jared Polis. At least one of the infected people had previously contracted COVID-19; none of them had a history of travel.

“It does not appear there’s widespread transmission” of the variant within the prison. The state will vaccinate all inmates at the facility, plus its staff, as well as family members and close contacts of those employees, Herlihy and state officials have said. 

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The three cases at the correctional facility were identified by the state’s random sampling surveillance, Herlihy said. All three were randomly selected from the larger pool of testing samples collected statewide.

Identification of the new strain within a prison renewed focus on the state’s decision to not give vaccine priority to inmates. Polis, who repeatedly said the state wouldn’t be vaccinating inmates before people who are not incarcerated, said Tuesday that “no one can guess ahead of time” where outbreaks will arise.”

The largest COVID-19 clusters in the state thus far have been in prisons, with thousands of inmates testing positive over the past year. 

The number of variant cases within Colorado remains relatively small, but has been climbing in recent weeks amid public health cautions that the more-deadly U.K. variant could become a dominant strain here. Experts have said masking and social distancing remain imperative even as more people get vaccinated.

Polis said Tuesday the state has successfully vaccinated 90% of its educators and child-care workers. Vaccinations were opened in Colorado to people age 60 and older last week, with the next expansion of who can get a vaccine to come later this month.

The governor’s office announced early Tuesday morning that Polis and Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, sent a letter to the federal government asking to be allowed to pool unused doses at the bottom of vaccine vials. That could lead to a 5% to 10% increase in supply. Polis said he was “incredibly frustrated” that Colorado couldn’t do it, adding that the left-over vaccines – each a fraction of a full dose that could be combined – are being throw away.