SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A third California state prison has had an inmate die of suspected coronavirus as fatalities spread beyond what had been the prisons’ epicenter for such deaths.
Officials said Friday that an inmate from Chuckawalla Valley State Prison near Blythe in Riverside County died Thursday at an outside hospital from what appear to be coronavirus complications.
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.
More than 3,100 male and female prisoners in California have tested positive for coronavirus. Nearly 1,000 of those infections come from Chuckawalla Valley State Prison near Blythe.
Nearly 500 corrections employees have also tested positive for COVID-19.
Read more from ABC10
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