Inmate in NC women’s prison dies from COVID complications
This story was updated Feb. 9, 2020, to reflect the latest inmate death.
An inmate at the N.C. Correctional Institution for Women died at a hospital of COVID-19 complications Thursday after testing positive for the virus on Christmas Eve.
The woman was first hospitalized Jan. 3. She was in her early 70s and had underlying medical conditions, the state Department of Public Safety said.
“We are working hard to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 in our prisons. The health and safety of the staff and the offender population continues to be our top priority,” said Todd Ishee, commissioner of prisons, in a news release.
DPS did not provide additional details about the woman out of family privacy concerns and inmate confidentiality.
Forty-four inmates and at least seven staff members have died from COVID-19, with more than half of them occurring in the past three months, according to DPS’ website. The majority of the people who died were over 60.
The latest death, an inmate at the Rutherford Correctional Center with pre-existing medical conditions, died at a hospital Sunday, DPS reported in a news release Monday. He had tested positive for COVID-19 on Jan. 14 and was hospitalized on Jan. 17.
Three of the total inmate deaths came from the women’s prison in Raleigh. There were 50 active cases there Monday, according to the DPS site.
DPS reported 9,189 inmates have tested positive for the coronavirus since the pandemic began — almost one of every four tested, according to the department’s website. There were 500 active cases and six prisoners hospitalized as of Monday.
More than 3,200 staff members have also tested positive, also about one in four.
About 2,800 of the state’s 14,000 prison employees — roughly one in five — have been vaccinated for the virus so far with the help of the N.C. National Guard, The Charlotte Observer reported.
North Carolina is one of at least 16 states vaccinating inmates, according to data compiled by the COVID Prison project, a group of public health scientists tracking the spread of COVID-19 in prisons and jails.
This story was originally published February 4, 2021 at 6:21 PM.