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.