Items from a COVID-19 test kit are displayed for a photograph at the Core Lab in Northwell Health's Center for Advanced Medicine in Lake Success, New York. Photo: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg

As Gov. Andrew Cuomo urged eligible New Yorkers to get tested for COVID-19 and touted the state's testing capacity Sunday, recent state data shows a dramatic lack of testing among the state's prison population. 

"We just don't have enough New Yorkers coming to be tested," said the third-term governor Sunday, noting the state has hundreds of testing sites. He reported that some testing sites have the ability to do about 15,000 tests a day, but are only conducting about 5,000. 

"Now we have more testing capacity and more sites than we're actually using," he said.

New York has increased its capacity, but testing has not translated proportionately to state prisons—facilities that experts have warned are a prime environment for the virus to spread caused by close living quarters.

As of last week, state prisoners were receiving about four times fewer tests per capita compared to New York's general population, according to state and prison department data.

As of Saturday afternoon, inmates at several state prisons have received zero tests and more than 20 other facilities have recorded only a handful of tests or fewer.

Melissa DeRosa, secretary to the governor, said the state is testing prisoners under the same criteria as the general population. Those criteria include whether a person is symptomatic or has come in contact with a person who has tested positive for the virus, she said.

If there's a reason to expand testing in prisons, they will look at it and expand accordingly, the Cuomo aide said.

Meanwhile, Cuomo outlined a broad list of people who are eligible to receive COVID-19 diagnostic testing. That list includes people who have COVID-19 symptoms, people who have been in contact with someone who has the virus and any essential worker who interacts directly with the public during their job. 

The list also includes workers who would return to their place of employment during phase one of Cuomo's reopening plan, which includes the reopening of construction and manufacturing operations. 

"So it's a tremendously large universe of people who can get tested. And all you have to do is go to a website, find the testing site near you and get a test," he said. "And it is a fast and easy thing to do."

In urging people to get tested, the Democrat went so far as to get tested himself during a live press conference in Albany on Sunday.

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