WAYNE COUNTY, Pa. (WHTM) — Congressman Fred Keller commented on an inmate at USP Canaan, a high-security United States federal prison in Wayne County, being diagnosed with COVID-19.

According to reports, the the federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed Wednesday an inmate at USP Canaan has been diagnosed with COVID-19.

Tuesday Congressman Keller introduced the bipartisan Pandemic Act of 2020 that would immediately halt the movement of inmates across the federal Bureau of Prisons system during the COVID-19 national emergency so as to mitigate the national spread across the prison system and communities across the country.

While USP Canaan physically lies outside of Pennsylvania’s 12^th Congressional inmates, employees and corrections officers working at the facility live in the district.

In response, Congressman Fred Keller made the following comment:

“The nightmare scenario we have been working to prevent for the last two weeks has finally arrived: a federal prison in our backyard has a confirmed case of COVID-19.

“While the Bureau of Prisons continues to move inmates across the country business as usual and not taking appropriate action to detect, prevent, or mitigate the spread of COVID-19, they continue to put inmates, corrections officers, BOP employees, and local communities at risk.

“This diagnosis, in addition to the newly-reported COVID-19 inmate deaths at the Oakdale facility in Louisiana, is why the Bureau of Prisons needs to stop inmate movement on their own and the PANDEMIC Act of 2020 needs to be brought up for consideration as soon as Congress returns.

“Corrections officers, communities surrounding federal prison systems, and inmates cannot continue to wait and wonder why the Bureau of Prisons is not willing to protect them from this dangerous virus.”