An Alabama Department of Corrections employee has tested positive for COVID-19.

ADOC said Thursday they would not identify the name of the individual or the facility at which they work, though they called the employee's job "administrative."

ADOC said there are no positive cases within the inmate population as of 4 p.m. on Thursday, and that "all individuals" within ADOC who have been in direct contact with the positive case are now in "self-quarantine for a 14-day period."

NEW: Alabama prisons block new jail intakes for 30 days amid coronavirus pandemic

The Montgomery Advertiser has asked ADOC how many people have been asked to self-quarantine, and if that number includes only other ADOC employees or inmates as well.

“The ADOC has been actively preparing for the spread of COVID-19 throughout Alabama, which allowed us to quickly put in place necessary preventive measures and protocols to best protect our staff and inmate population,” said Commissioner Jeff Dunn in an emailed statement. “Unfortunately, no one is immune to this virus. The physical state of our facilities and our crowded inmate populations are additional challenges we are working diligently to address as we navigate the evolving COVID-19 outbreak. The entire Department is focused on reducing the potential impact of this disease on our correctional system, while maintaining critical operational, rehabilitative, heath, and mental health services.”

Dunn was a member of Gov. Kay Ivey's original COVID-19 task force with public health officials.

The news of the positive case came two days after ADOC declined to answer a Montgomery Advertiser question about whether any inmate or employee had been tested.

Prison officials said Thursday that ADOC "has the ability to test inmates within the facilities" but testing will "only occur after the ADPH approves a physician's order."

More:Alabama prisons block personal, legal visits amid coronavirus pandemic

Alabama prisons have blocked personal and legal visits to prisoners and implementing staff temperature checks statewide in an attempt to prevent the spread of COVID-19 into prison dormitories.

But prisoners and their families tell the Montgomery Advertiser they remain concerned about how quickly the novel coronavirus might spread if introduced into a prison, and the havoc it could wreak on a system already plagued by failing infrastructure and poor medical care, endangering both the incarcerated and the staff who return every day to their Alabama communities.

According to a list of precautionary measures on ADOC's website, officials are trying to cut down on unnecessary movement into the camps or between camps. New measures include:

Suspending all visitation, inmate passes, tours, and volunteer entry for 30 days

Providing inmate inmates with one free call per week (up to 15 minutes) and extended hours of availability

Suspending all inmate co-pays (including for medical services not directly related to COVID-19) for 60 days

Suspending inmate transfers between facilities unless for security of health care reasons

Suspending non-emergency or chemotherapy related outside health care visits

Suspending legal visits from attorneys. "Requests by counsel for an in-person meeting due to urgent matters will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Attorney visits also will be accommodated by confidential phone calls."

Sanitizing facilities on an "increased schedule"

Checking all employee temperature before they enter the facility. Anyone with a temperature higher than 100.4 will not be allowed into the prison. Temperature checks will also be implemented at the beginning of each shift statewide All employees will have temperature screening at the beginning of each shift statewide.

The coronavirus COVID-19 often causes mild to moderate flu- and pneumonia-like illnesses in those young and relatively healthy, though some experts caution it is still more intense than the average cold or flu for many patients.

It can be deadly, particularly in those older than 60 or with pre-existing health conditions. And prisoners and their families say they're already susceptible to illness, with difficulties obtaining regular medical care and poor diets filled with sodium-rich and processed foods.

“You have an artificial environment which is at a high risk for transmission … the same you have in military barracks and dormitories,” Josiah D. Rich, a physician and professor of medicine and epidemiology at Brown University who co-founded the Center for Prisoner Health and Human Rights, told the Washington Post this week. “But the population you have [in prisons] is not a young, healthy population. It’s aging.”

As of December, around 2,500 Alabamians 60 or older were incarcerated in Alabama.

In increasingly urgent messages on a daily basis, public health officials around the country are urging stringent protocols for social distancing and isolation in attempt to slow the spread of infection before it balloons to a rate unsustainable for the American health care system.

But the most basic protocols for preventing infection — avoiding large crowds of people, keeping 6 feet apart when you do have to see people, even washing your hands as frequently as possible — are virtually impossible for incarcerated individuals to follow.

In many Alabama prison dorms, men sleep on bunks beds separated just enough to allow a single-person walkway. The facilities are dangerously overcrowded, with the inmate population in December 2019 nearly 10,000 people over what the current prison was built to handle.

On Thursday afternoon, a statewide coalition dedicated to prison reform issued a public letter to state officials with recommendations to address the coronavirus pandemic in Alabama's prisons and jails.

Among other steps, the coalition called for a firm of medical furlough for older prisoners and inmates who would be particularly vulnerable to a COVID-19 infection.

"To begin this process, we recommend ADOC order an immediate review of all people in Alabama prisons who are 60 or older, or are medically infirm with an eye toward providing medical furloughs to as many of them as possible," Alabamians for Fair Justice wrote. "We believe that particular consideration should be given to the older men and women currently incarcerated who have already served decades in prison. We have already identified nearly 1000 individuals incarcerated in ADOC facilities over the age of 65, with many more over the age of 60, who would be eligible for such release."

AFJ also recommended releasing prisoners with 6 months or less left on their sentences to ease overcrowding and the related public health risk.

Inmates in Autauga, Elmore and Chilton county jails with bonds under $5,000 were ordered released Wednesday night.

Presiding Circuit Judge Ben Fuller, of Autauga County, entered the order stating the inmates would be released on their own recognizance in an effort to ease overcrowding over fears of the spread of the coronavirus.

Fuller's actions had law enforcement and other judges in the circuit scrambling. They apparently were not consulted before the order came down.

Autauga County Sheriff Joe Sedinger was conducting an audit of inmates to determine who would be covered. He said no one will be released from the Autauga Metro Jail until Thursday and then only after review from a judge.

"I have the discretion on releasing anyone, whether they can post bond or not," Sedinger said. "If I feel there is a threat to the public, I won't release them."

Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Melissa Brown at 334-240-0132 or mabrown@gannett.com.