As the number of Florida corrections workers testing positive for COVID-19 grows, fears of an outbreak in the nation's third-largest prison system have gripped employees, inmates and their loved ones.

"The problem with the prisons is that we are a little gated community, and once it hits there, it's going to hit. And the window is closing on the department [Florida Department of Corrections] to be able to get this under control," Jim Baiardi, who leads the state corrections chapter of the Florida Police Benevolent Association, said in an interview Tuesday.

On the front lines, prison employees who are reporting to work are worried that they don't have gloves, face masks and hand sanitizer to protect them from the highly contagious and rapidly spreading coronavirus, which causes the respiratory disease COVID-19.