CALIFORNIA BRIEFING / SACRAMENTO

A quarantine of San Quentin State Prison inmates has been expanded in response to a possible swine flu epidemic.

Luis Patino, a spokesman for the federal receiver who oversees medical care at the state’s prisons, said Monday that 35 San Quentin prisoners have shown symptoms consistent with the H1N1 virus. The suspected cases have surfaced in several different areas of the prison north of San Francisco that houses California’s death row.

As a precaution, officials have isolated 2,100 of the prison’s 5,200 inmates. Last week, when the potential cases were limited to one cellblock, 800 prisoners were quarantined.

Patino says the prison still doesn’t know if the ill inmates have swine flu and is awaiting confirmation through lab tests.