photo by: Associated Press

Signs of support are seen at Riverbend PostAcute Rehabilitation facility Friday, April 17, 2020 in Kansas City, Kan. The facility has the largest cluster of COVID-19 cases in Kansas. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Story updated at 5:40 p.m. Wednesday

TOPEKA — Kansas’ top health official said Wednesday that the state is considering testing all prison inmates and residents of long-term care homes for the coronavirus, as such homes have accounted for more than half of the state’s COVID-19-related deaths and a prison has had a major outbreak.

Dr. Lee Norman, head of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said the state also is looking at testing all of those institutions’ employees. He said such testing represents population studies the state must do to determine the true extent of the virus.

“We haven’t had the testing materials to do that,” Norman said during an Associated Press interview. “We’re just coming up to that now.”

Norman said the state has seen 17 clusters of coronavirus cases in long-term care homes, accounting for 58 of the state’s 110 COVID-19-related deaths reported as of Wednesday. Twenty-seven deaths were from an outbreak at Riverbend Post Acute Rehabilitation in Kansas City, Kan.

Kansas officials said state and federal inspectors are looking into infection control measures that are being implemented at the Riverbend facility.

Norman said during a Statehouse news conference: “They should be able to go back to a full and normal existence once the cleansing and once the ‘X’ number of days out are sufficient so that there’s not transmission of new cases.”

Eight of the sickened Riverbend residents remained hospitalized Tuesday, the Kansas City-Wyandotte County health agency said. Riverbend said on its website this week that there were signs of improvement, noting that 90% of the sickened residents were medically stable.

Wyandotte County, where the facility is based, is the hardest hit in the state, accounting for 21% or 433 of the state’s 2,025 cases, even though the county has less 6% of the state’s population.

Cory Schulte, Riverbend’s executive director, didn’t immediately reply to a phone message Wednesday seeking comment.

The state prison in Lansing, outside Kansas City, has had 50 confirmed coronavirus cases among its inmates. The state faces a lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas seeking the release of vulnerable inmates and Gov. Laura Kelly said she’s “very close” to announcing a plan, though it won’t affect “a whole huge number.”

Kansas has had among the lowest COVID-19 testing rates of any state, 6.94 per 1,000 residents as of Wednesday, which was well below the national rate.

Meanwhile, the Kansas Legislature is not expecting to reconvene Monday from an unusually long, coronavirus-inspired spring break as previously planned. Legislative leaders postponed a decision on when to return to as late as May 6.