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The head doctor at Rikers Island has warned that a “storm is coming” as the coronavirus will inevitably spread through the city’s vast jail complex unless precautions are taken.

Ross MacDonald, the chief medical officer for Correctional Health Services, posted the message in a series of tweets late Wednesday as he called for the release of inmates amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“A message from the Chief Physician of Rikers Island for the judges and prosecutors of New York: We who care for those you detain noticed how swiftly you closed your courts in response to #COVID19,” MacDonald’s tweet thread began.

“This was fundamentally an act of social distancing, a sound strategy in public health. But the luxury that allows you to protect yourselves, carries with it an obligation to those you detain,” MacDonald wrote in another tweet.

MacDonald added that inmates must not be left in “harm’s way.”

“To be clear, the public servants who care for those in your jails have been planning for this storm for weeks and months. We will muster every tool of public health, science and medicine to try to keep our patients safe. We will apply every novel treatment and scarce test,” the doctor wrote.

MacDonald then touched on how social distancing is not practical in a jail setting.

“We will put ourselves at personal risk and ask little in return. But we cannot change the fundamental nature of jail. We cannot socially distance dozens of elderly men living in a dorm, sharing a bathroom. Think of a cruise ship recklessly boarding more passengers each day,” he tweeted.

In another tweet, MacDonald warned: “A storm is coming and I know what I’ll be doing when it claims my first patient. What will you be doing? What will you have done? We have told you who is at risk. Please let as many out as you possibly can.”

MacDonald posted his message hours after Mayor Bill de Blasio said that he plans to release “vulnerable” inmates from city jails in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus into local lockups.

“In the next 48 hours, we will identify any inmates who need to be brought out because of either their own health conditions — if they have any pre-existing conditions, etc. — or because the charges were minor and we think it’s appropriate to bring them out in this context,” the mayor said Wednesday evening.

The announcement came after both a correction officer and an inmate tested positive for the deadly virus in the past day.