Not just prisons: 15 California state departments reported employees died from COVID-19

At least 57 California state workers have died from the coronavirus, according to data from the Government Operations Agency.

Fifteen departments reported at least one death from March 15 of last year through Feb. 26, according to the data, which the agency provided in response to a Public Records Act request.

Departments reported deaths on a volunteer basis, and the true number of deaths could be higher, according to the agency.

The agency said it does not track numbers of infections by department.

The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has reported 26 deaths related to the virus, accounting for nearly half the total.

Caltrans reported the second-highest number of deaths, with seven.

The departments of General Services, Developmental Services and State Hospitals each reported three deaths.

The Employment Development Department reported two deaths, as did the California Highway Patrol and the departments of Consumer Affairs and Parks and Recreation. Exposition Park in Los Angeles also reported two deaths.

The departments of Rehabilitation, Veterans Affairs and Industrial Relations each reported one death, as did the Prison Industry Authority and the Franchise Tax Board.

The rate of deaths among California’s 235,000 state workers comes to about 24 per 100,000. As of Wednesday, California had recorded about 134 deaths per 100,000 people.

The general population rate includes deaths among people who are older than those typically employed by the state and thereby more susceptible to death from the virus. The general population likely differs in other medically significant ways from the state worker population, making it difficult to draw conclusions from a comparison of the rates.

The virus’s impact on the state’s workforce has differed greatly. Workers deemed essential have had to continue reporting in-person to worksites including prisons, state hospitals, state parks and some offices. Others have been able to work from home since shortly after the virus arrived.

The two departments with the most deaths are the two largest.

The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and California Correctional Health Care Services employ about 60,000 people, according to figures provided by corrections spokeswoman Dana Simas.

Lawmakers and state watchdog agencies have criticized the corrections department’s virus response, including reported loose mask enforcement and transfers of infected inmates to prisons that had been free of the virus, including San Quentin State Prison.

But the prison system has to staff its facilities — many of which are poorly ventilated and decades to hundreds of years old — all day every day, marking a significant difference from most state workplaces and limiting opportunities for telework, Simas said in an email.

The department now requires mask-wearing, testing and screening and is enforcing requirements through the discipline process, Simas said.

The department started vaccinating employees and inmates Dec. 22 at California Health Care Facility in Stockton, and as of March 1 had vaccinated 25,626 staff members, according to Simas.

At Caltrans, which employs about 21,000 people, about 11,000 are teleworking, spokesman Matt Rocco said.

Of the seven deaths at the transportation department, three were office employees in Northern California and one was an office employee in Southern California. Three were field employees in Southern California, Rocco said.

He said the department could not definitively determine the employees were infected on the job.

The department follows state and federal health guidelines on wearing masks, physical distancing, and teleworking, Rocco said.

The Employment Development Department, the CHP and the Department of State Hospitals — which each reported two to three deaths — are the next three largest state departments by employee count, according to Department of Finance data.

The Department of Motor Vehicles, the state’s sixth-largest department, reported no deaths, even though many employees have had to continue reporting to field offices through the pandemic.

This story was originally published March 4, 2021 at 11:07 AM.