A third California state prison has had an inmate die of a suspected COVID-19 infection as fatalities spread beyond what had been the prisons' epicenter for such deaths, officials said Friday.
An inmate from Chuckawalla Valley State Prison near Blythe in Riverside County died Thursday at an outside hospital from what appears to be complications from the coronavirus, officials said, although the exact cause of death has not yet been determined.
It was the prison system's 15th virus-related inmate death, with 13 of those at the California Institution for Men in Chino. Officials said the first death outside that prison came Tuesday, when an inmate from the California Institution for Women in Corona, east of Los Angeles, died at an outside hospital.
Chuckawalla Valley has 990 inmates who are positive for the coronavirus. Statewide, more than 2,440 inmates have tested positive and more than 660 have recovered.
Two corrections employees have died. Nearly 500 employees have tested positive, and more than 230 of them have returned to work.
An effort to test all prison staff at San Quentin State Prison for COVID-19 began this week after 16 inmates who were recently transferred there tested positive for the virus.
— KQED News Staff and Wires