Sacramento County Jail inmate’s death related to COVID infection, health officials say
Sacramento County health officials on Monday evening announced that a jail inmate, who was vaccinated against the coronavirus several months ago, has died after testing positive for COVID-19 last week.
The Sacramento County Jail inmate was a 76-year-old man who was being treated for “long term significant and multiple underlying health conditions,” according to a county news release. He was admitted to a hospital Oct. 25 because he had low oxygen levels, health officials said.
He tested positive for COVID-19 at the hospital. Sacramento County Public Health officials say they were notified of the inmate’s death on Monday morning. County officials did not release his name.
The inmate who died was vaccinated in June 2021 while in custody. County officials have said all inmates are offered vaccinations and provided education about the benefits of vaccination.
Immediately after the inmate tested positive for COVID-19, jail staff began contact tracing and quarantined the unit where the inmate was housed, health officials said.
“We are working closely with Correctional Health staff to conduct contact tracing and mitigate the spread,” Sacramento County Public Health Officer Olivia Kasirye said in the news release. “Quarantine protocols are in place and extensive testing is being done.”
Health officials said all COVID-19 quarantine protocols were being followed, and jail health staff were providing COVID tests for inmates who had contact with the man who died.
On Oct. 22, county health officials announced they were investigating a COVID-19 outbreak at both Sacramento County Jail facilities, where 69 out of 3,202 inmates tested positive for the virus. At the time, health officials said all confirmed COVID-19 cases among inmates in custody involved unvaccinated people.
At the main jail in downtown Sacramento, 32 inmates had tested positive for COVID-19 as of Oct. 20, according to the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office. There were 37 inmates at Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center near Elk Grove who tested positive for the respiratory disease.
In the following weekly update on Oct. 27, the Sheriff’s Office reported 75 COVID cases were currently active — 34 at the main jail and 41 at RCCC.
Decarcerate Sacramento, the activist group that has been advocating on behalf of inmates throughout the pandemic, has planned a news conference Tuesday morning at the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors building in downtown Sacramento. They will discuss the recent jail COVID outbreak.
Tifanei Ressl-Moyer, an attorney with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and co-founder of Decarcerate Sacramento, said county officials, jail staff and defense attorneys should be working together to protect the rights and dignity of people in jail awaiting trial during a pandemic.
“For years, our county leadership has known of the need to dramatically reduce the Sacramento jail population for the safety and well-being of our community,” Ressl-Moyer said in a news release from the activist group. “The need to reduce the jail population becomes more and more urgent every day.”
This story was originally published November 1, 2021 at 6:58 PM.
