CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - Two more male inmates at a North Carolina prison with among the highest number of COVID-19 cases have died after testing positive for the virus, state prison officials said.
One offender at Albemarle Correctional Institution in Stanly County died at an unnamed hospital on Friday, the Department of Public Safety said in a news release, while another housed at the prison died at a hospital on Thursday.
Eight state prisoners with COVID-19 have died since the pandemic began, according to department data. Three were serving their sentences at Albemarle, which has reported over 100 positive cases to date.
The inmates who most recently died were hospitalized in early July and had tested positive weeks ago. Both died from preexisting conditions complicated by the virus. Citing privacy and confidentiality rules, officials haven’t released the names of the prisoners who have died. The offender who died Thursday was in his early 60s, while the inmate who died Friday was in his early 70s.
The Division of Prisons is currently working to test every inmate in the state’s more than 50 prisons. Mass testing has occurred at two-thirds of the prisons so far, according to prison data. More than 1,250 inmates have tested positive during the pandemic out of nearly 23,000 tests performed so far.
Statewide, more than 110,000 people have tested positive for COVID-19 overall as of Saturday, for an increase of 2,100 cases since Friday. according to Department of Health and Human Services data. About 1.58 million tests have been completed and 1,168 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.