San Quentin Reports 26th Inmate Dies from COVID-19
SAN RAFAEL (CBS SF) -- San Quentin State Prison officials announced Friday that a prisoner died from COVID-19 complications, the 26th inmate to die of the virus since the outbreak began in March.
The announcement came the day the San Jose Mercury News reported that there were under 50 coronavirus cases at the prison for the first time since mid-June, when an outbreak at the facility began.
As of Friday, there's 36 inmates infected with COVID-19. There's been three new cases in the past two weeks -- a positive downtrend at San Quentin.
When the outbreak began in March, San Quentin held 4,000 inmates. Since then the facility's released about 1,000 inmates to assist with social distancing protocols.
"CDCR takes the health and safety of all those who live and work in our state prisons very seriously and will continue to work diligently to address the COVID-19 pandemic," a release from San Quentin said.
The facility provides an online Patient Tracker, which will be updated Friday to reflect the changes.
For information on actions CDCR is taking to address COVID-19, visit: https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/covid19/covid-19-response-efforts/.
