(CNN) Three inmates have tested positive for the coronavirus in Georgia, raising concerns the pandemic could spread within tight prison quarters nationwide.

The entire inmate population at the facility will be screened and quarantined, the statement said without providing details.

In Alabama, the Department of Corrections said an administrative employee tested positive for coronavirus this week , and anyone who may have had contact with the person is in self-quarantine for 14 days.

Local authorities said this week that corrections officers in New York and Georgia had caught the virus, as well as an inmate at New York City's Rikers Island. In Arizona, the state's Department of Corrections said Wednesday that it would give inmates free hand soap after an advocacy group exposed a lack of cleaning supplies at local prisons and appealed to a federal judge to intervene.

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