A Manhattan federal judge on Tuesday implored Congress and the Trump administration to take “swift” and “systemic” action to protect inmates against the growing threat of the novel coronavirus in the nation’s jails.

In a striking ruling, U.S. District Judge Jesse M. Furman of the Southern District of New York said he was “powerless” under federal law to order the release of a 67-year-old former doctor from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where at least one inmate has contracted COVID-19, the potentially deadly illness caused by the virus.