(Los Angeles) COVID cases – 19 recently exploded in California's oldest prison, San Quentin, where more than a thousand detainees have tested positive for the coronavirus, local authorities said.
Posted on 30 June 2020 at 15 h 13
France Media Agency
“This is one of our deepest concerns right now,” said Governor Gavin Newsom, noting that 42% of the few 3500 detainees in San Quentin prison, near San Francisco, are considered “medically fragile”.
Unlike other state prisons, San Quentin had been spared from coronavirus until the beginning of June. But transfers of prisoners from severely affected establishments like Chino’s have likely sparked the epidemic.
“Unfortunately, they arrived without being tested and were placed in San Quentin”, declared on NPR radio the D r Matt Willis, director of health for the county of Marin where the prison is located.
The Chino men's detention center near Los Angeles was a home known to COVID – 19 at the start of the epidemic. More than 500 detained there to date have been declared positive for the disease, and sixteen have died.
San Quentin prison now accounts for half of the reported COVID cases – 19 in California prisons , the most populous state in the United States, but also one of the most affected by the epidemic with more 200 00 0 confirmed cases and close to 6000 death.
To avoid excess mortality among prisoners, the authorities had decided the early release of some 3500 detainees, convicted of minor crimes and having less than 180 days in prison to be served.
Governor Newsom announced Monday that 3500 other potential candidates for this measure had been identified, including 110 in San Quentin.
In total, California's prison population is approximately 113 00 0 people.
