LANSING — Twelve Michigan prisons are now wholly or partially off-limits to visitors, mostly because of flu outbreaks, but in two cases over concerns about exposing vulnerable prisoners to the coronavirus.

Starting Friday, visits are suspended at C-Unit of the Charles Egeler Reception and Guidance Center, which houses prisoner with medical needs, plus the Duane L. Waters Health Center, a prison hospital that is part of the same complex near Jackson, Michigan Department of Corrections spokesman Chris Gautz said Thursday. Visits are also suspended at Lakeland Correctional Facility in Coldwater, which has a geriatric unit, Gautz said.

The suspensions of visits at Lakeland and parts of Egeler are "an effort to protect the health of vulnerable prisoners" from the coronavirus pandemic, Gautz said.

Separately, visits are banned at 10 other Michigan prisons because of flu outbreaks not related to coronavirus, Gautz said.

Those bans have created worries among prisoners and their loved ones that visits are off-limits because of coronavirus, but that is not the case, he said. No Michigan prisoners have been isolated or tested for coronavirus, he said.

"We always have some facilities under (flu) outbreak status," and "we currently have a few more than we usually do," Gautz said.

Having three to four of the state's 30 prisons with an outbreak is more typical during flu season, he said.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced Tuesday that there are two confirmed Michigan cases of novel coronavirus, in Oakland and Wayne counties. Neither person was in prison.

"We are seeing prisoners sending out a lot of misinformation ... to their families and others," Gautz said.

"There is no change in how quickly we announce flu restrictions. That has always been in place and is prompt. As soon as we have two confirmed cases of the flu, we shut down visits and call it an outbreak. We also post that publicly to alert family and friends that visits are suspended."

Gautz said the prisons now under flu outbreak status are: Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility near Ypsilanti; Thumb Correctional Facility in Lapeer; Carson City Correctional Facility; Newberry Correctional Facility; Alger Correctional Facility near Munising; Kinross Corectional Facility near Kincheloe; Macomb Correctional Facility in Lenox Township; G. Robert Cotton Correctional Facility near Jackson; Cooper Street Correctional Facility near Jackson, and the Central Michigan Correctional Facility in St. Louis.

"They stay on that status until they can go seven days without a new case and even then we might extend it just to be careful as we don’t want the flu to come back right away," Gautz said.

Separately, the department announced Wednesday new visitor screening measures and other steps it is taking to keep state prisons free of the coronavirus, amid growing concerns from prisoner advocacy groups and calls to temporarily release prisoners who would be particularly susceptible to the virus, such as the old and the infirm.

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Until further notice, anyone coming into a prison will be asked a series of screening questions and may have their temperature checked before being allowed to enter, the department said in a news release. This includes all staff, visitors, volunteers and contractors.

As a further measure, the department is suspending the transfers of inmates from all county jails to state prisons until further notice, the department said on Twitter.

The department said the prisons are getting more frequent and thorough cleanings and information on prevention is being provided to prisoners.

Bleach, which is sometimes banned in Michigan prisons as a security threat, has been approved "so every facility can do a deep clean and continue to clean heavy use areas," Gautz said.

The department has also postponed a corrections officer graduation ceremony that had been scheduled for March 20 at the Lansing Center and is also reviewing other large events, including training academies, he said.

Matt Tjapkes, president of the advocacy group Humanity for Prisoners, said he is hearing many concerns about coronavirus, not only from prisoners, but from loved ones on the outside.

“Many feel that those in our prisons are essentially sitting ducks waiting for the disease to arrive," Tjapkes said.

Jonathan Sacks, director of the State Appellate Defender Office, on Thursday called for "basic legislative changes (to) allow for the release of the most vulnerable incarcerated people in the event of a coronavirus spread."

Gautz said the department would not be able to temporarily release old and infirm prisoners under current law.

"We have to continue to house prisoners for the length of time the courts have ordered them to serve," Gautz said.

"We do recognize we have facilities that have more older prisoners or those with potentially more compromised immune systems and we are ensuring staff there take particular care to ensure proper and consistent cleaning."

State Sen. Erika Geiss, D-Taylor, who is working with prison advocacy groups on bills introduced Thursday related to the treatment of pregnant prisoners and oversight of Michigan's only prison for women, said she is also concerned about Michigan prisons and coronavirus.

She is seeking information from the department about its policies related to coronavirus for all state prisons, and the women's prison is a particular concern, "given its past issues with health care," Geiss said.

In January 2019, the department closed Women's Huron Valley to visitors so it could treat all 2,000 prisoners there for scabies, in an attempt to end an outbreak that lasted more than a year, because of failures to properly diagnose it sooner.

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @paulegan4.