ALBANY — The Cuomo administration imposed new restrictions on inmate visits at two maximum security prisons Wednesday after state lawmakers and leaders of the corrections officers union warned of surges in COVID-19 infections at the facilities.

An advocate for suspending visitation for inmates, Sen. Thomas O’Mara, R-Big Flats, said he is convinced the abrupt policy shift came about in response to news coverage of the prison infections by CNHI’s New York newspapers and WETM, an NBC television affiliate station in Elmira.

“The only thing Governor (Andrew) Cuomo seems to respond to these days is press,” O’Mara said. “It’s unfortunate we have to push it that way. But that’s the only thing that gets his attention.”

The Department of Correctional Services and Community Supervision, which runs the network of prisons across the state, imposed an indefinite halt on all inmate visits at the Elmira and Greene prisons Wednesday afternoon. The same agency also halted the transfer of prisoners to and from the two prisons.

Greene, which houses 1,157 inmates, has had 100 prisoner test positive for the virus as of Wednesday. Nearly all of those infections were documented this month. The same prison has had 26 staffers test positive for COVID-19, according to officials in Greene County.

A total of 278 inmates at Elmira have tested positive for the virus as of Wednesday. Last Friday, reports from DOCCS indicated the total number of virus-positive Elmira inmates stood at 78, meaning 200 new infections have been confirmed in less than one week.

Cuomo, in a press briefing, discussed the state’s response to the pandemic for an hour Wednesday. He revealed a new effort to increase restrictions on businesses in some parts of Chemung County and suggested travel to and from Pennsylvania could be driving an increase of infections in the region. But he did not mention the outbreak at the Elmira prison, where the infection total dwarfs the positive cases in nearby communities.

On Tuesday, O’Mara, along with Assemblyman D. Billy Jones, D-Plattsburgh; Chris Tague, R-Schoharie; Joseph Giglio, R-Gowanda; Gary Finch, R-Springport; and Phil Palmesano, R-Corning; urged Cuomo to curb visits throughout the prison system.

Jones said the same stop should be put on visits to inmate at Clinton, a maximum security prison near Plattsburgh, where test results made public Monday indicated that 11 inmates have contracted the coronavirus infections.

“We need a clearer policy on this,” said Jones, noting that similar bright-line rules that restrict nursing home visits should be developed for the prisons.

John Roberts, a regional vice president for the New York State Correctional Officers Police Benevolent Association, said it is believed the infections at Clinton are linked to an Oct. 14 visit to a Clinton inmate.

“Clinton had just one positive in the first 6? months and then all of sudden there are 11 more,” said Roberts. “It’s very alarming for the facility and for the staff.”

Roberts said the suspension on inmate visits and transfers should apply to prisons throughout the state, not just Elmira and Greene.

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CLEANING, TESTING

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Prison administrators have stressed the importance of using cleaning supplies to disinfect the facilities and for staff to wear masks Tague said DOCCS should be providing testing to front-line staff at least weekly, He said corrections officers, in some cases, have paid for the tests themselves. The assemblyman also wants the state to require that all inmates preparing for release to get tested before they are discharged.

State officials have begun to expand testing to employees at prisons experiencing clusters this week.

Since March, a total of 18 New York prison inmates have died from COVID-19, while the virus has claimed the lives of five DOCCS employees.

Meanwhile, a prison reform group, the Release Aging People in Prison Campaign, signaled it will stage a demonstration Thursday outside Greene Correctional Facility. The demonstrators are calling on Cuomo to grant clemency to the the prison’s oldest inmates and those who are immunocompromised or within one year of their scheduled release.

As for restrictions on travelers headed to New York from other states, Cuomo acknowledged the requirement for quarantining people from states with elevated virus positivity rates is being reviewed. A total of 43 states are on New York’s quarantine list.

Cuomo and the governors of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Connecticut this week discouraged travelers from leaving their home states for “nonessential” trips.

New York’s statewide positivity rate from testing has inched higher this month, reaching 1.6% Wednesday.

For Western New York, the latest positive rate was 2.0%. The North Country was at 0.6%; the Mohawk Valley was pegged at 0.5%; and the Southern Tier rate was put at 1.3%.