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The state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision finished testing 3,922 asymptomatic inmates who are age 55 and older, Gov. Andrew Cuomo revealed at his press briefing Thursday. Seventy-seven inmates tested positive for COVID-19. The positivity rate among the group was 1.9%. 

DOCCS told Ë®¹ûÅÉAV in early July that expanded testing eligibility to include older inmates. Older people tend to be at a greater risk of serious illness because of their age and they are more likely to have underlying health conditions. 

On July 9, DOCCS posted an update that indicated there were 1,118 pending tests in its prisons. At Attica Correctional Facility, there were 142 pending tests. Clinton Correctional Facility reported 112 pending tests. 

For two weeks, DOCCS didn't release a new report informing the public of the test results and any further testing in the facilities. Before Cuomo's briefing, the Release Aging People in Prison Campaign chided Cuomo for the lack of disclosure. 

"The Cuomo administration has made clear their ability to easily turn around test results in one to three days, yet more than a thousand older and sick New Yorkers in prison have been waiting for their test results for weeks," the group said. "There cannot be two standards of COVID-19 care in New York state." 

Hours later, Cuomo released the results of the tests. 

Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa said that the tests found "there had been no outbreak" in New York state prisons. That was a concern, as Cuomo explained, because prisons have congregate populations. 

According to the new data on DOCCS' website, 601 inmates and 1,307 employees have tested positive for COVID-19. While facility-level data isn't available for employees, the latest report shows that there have been 103 positive cases in Fishkill Correctional Facility — the most of any state prison. Green Haven Correctional Facility had the second-highest case total with 72. 

There has been at least one positive case in 27 of the 52 correctional facilities operated by DOCCS. 

Cuomo recalled watching national news networks and seeing reports of outbreaks at other prisons across the country. Just this week, there have been outbreaks reported at jails and prisons in California, Colorado and Texas. 

"In some ways, it's worse than any other congregate facility because people are really on top of one another," Cuomo said. "You've had prisons that have had serious outbreaks and that's when we decided to go test everybody."