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The city Department of Correction reported a sharp spike on Friday in the number of employees and inmates at Rikers Island and other jails who have tested positive for COVID-19.

The department counted 103 positive tests among inmates, up from 73 on Thursday.

As for correction officers and other employees, 80 were confirmed to have the bug as of Friday, up from 58.

DOC does not clarify which of its facilities coronavirus was found at but the vast majority of inmates are locked up in the sprawling jail facility on Rikers Island.

The increase comes as hundreds of inmates have been or will soon be released from custody. There were about 5,200 inmates in DOC jails at the beginning of the week — by Friday, the number had fallen to 4,860, according to city data.

In a phone interview with The Post, an inmate at Rikers said that staff has been enforcing social distancing during meal time when prisoners pack together at cafeteria tables.

But inmates are still coming in close contact in common areas in their dormitories and have to sleep just a few feet away from their cellmates — as well as share toilets with them, said Aziz Coleman, who is being held at the Otis Bantum Correctional Center on Rikers awaiting transfer to a state-run facility.

Coleman, 26, said he is among the inmates who are vulnerable to catching coronavirus — he recently had his appendix removed and has an infection below his pancreas, he said.

Coleman is supposed to serve a 97-day sentence in state prison for breaking his parole, but transfers to state prisons have been suspended since March 19. He said that he should be allowed to stay on house arrest until he can get sent upstate.

“It’s crazy,” he said. “What are we supposed to do? Stay here and wait until the coronavirus goes away?”

As the number of positive COVID-19 cases on Rikers grows, city officials, defense attorneys and prosecutors have been working to identify prisoners who could be moved from jail to house arrest while they await trial.

The Legal Aid Society has filed four lawsuits over the past week to get some of its clients out of Rikers and to win freedom for juvenile detainees.

On Friday, Legal Aid announced that a Bronx judge signed off on the release of 106 inmates who were being held on technical parole violations.