LISBON — The judge who ordered the Elkton federal prison to begin releasing or transferring at-risk inmates to protect them from the spread of the coronavirus at the facility has ordered officials there to pick up the pace.

Displeased with the progress since his April 22 order, U.S. District Court Judge James S. Gwin of Cleveland issued another one Tuesday instructing the federal Bureau of Prisons to begin interpreting in a broader manner the requirements it is supposed to follow when determining which inmates meet the criteria for release or transfer.

Gwin’s April 22 order, issued in response to legal action taken on behalf of inmates by the American Civil Liberties Union, told the BOP to identify inmates who would qualify for either compassionate release, parole, community supervision release, home confinement or transfer to another prison.

He defined the list of inmates to be evaluated as anyone 65 or older and any inmate with specific underlying medical conditions that would put them at higher risk of contracting the virus.

While prison officials have begun implementing widespread testing of inmates, it has been too slow to suit the ACLU and Gwin. He noted it is taking 96 hours to get test results back, not the 24-48 hours promised, and testing is only being conducted on Mondays and Tuesdays.

As of Tuesday, 524 had been tested at Elkton, which houses 2,400 inmates. Approximately 55 inmates have tested positive and 175 tested negative. Gwin said these numbers apparently exclude those inmates who tested positive before his April 22 order.

Gwin said the testing status report shows the infection rate was 24 percent for inmates subjected to either Abbott and Quest tests.

“In other words, so far the data demonstrates that almost one in four inmates at Elkton has been infected — an unacceptable number,” Gwin said.

According to the BOP website, the number of infected inmates at Elkton has reached 137, but 63 have recovered. The number of infected staff reached 63, 44 of whom have recovered. Nine inmates have died.

Gwin said the prison identified 837 inmates as being 65 and older. “Of this 837 vulnerable population, (BOP) have made only minimal effort to get at-risk inmates out of harm’s way,” he said.

Gwin noted Elkton is a low-to-minimum security facility. “By its nature, Elkton houses inmates with lower institutional and public risk factors,” he said.