RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - An inmate at a central North Carolina state prison who tested positive for the coronavirus has died, the Department of Public Safety announced Wednesday.
The prisoner at the Albemarle Correctional Institution in Stanly County died at an unnamed hospital Tuesday from preexisting conditions complicated by the coronavirus, a department news release said. The male prisoner was hospitalized last week and tested positive a few days later, the release said.
The death marks the sixth coronavirus-related death involving a state prison inmate. Albemarle is among more than 20 state prisons where mass testing has been conducted, according to the department. About 100 inmates have tested positive there, the department said.
More than 1,050 positive cases have been recorded as of Wednesday afternoon among the 9,300 state prison inmates tested since the pandemic began. Pressed by a judge’s order, the state prison system is now working to test all 32,000 current inmates by early August.
When federal prisons and other locations are included, more than 1,900 positive cases have been reported at correctional facilities in North Carolina with 31 deaths, the Department of Health and Human Services reported this week.
DHHS reported Wednesday another overall record of current COVID-19 hospitalizations in North Carolina at about 1,140. The number of overall cases in the state increased by almost 1,800 compared to Tuesday, and close to 1,570 people with COVID-19 have died in the state since the pandemic began, according to DHHS data.
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