Colorado prisoner dies after having coronavirus-like symptoms

Another inmate from a Colorado prison has died after suffering coronavirus-like symptoms.

The 58-year-old man, who was being housed at Fremont Correctional Facility, died Tuesday at Littleton Adventist Hospital. He had been moved to a hospital in Cañon City on Oct. 14 after having symptoms consistent with COVID-19 and was later transferred to Littleton Adventist.

The Colorado Department of Corrections announced the death on Thursday morning.

Since the start of the pandemic, Fremont Correctional Facility has had 398 confirmed COVID-19 cases among its inmate population. The prison can hold 1,661 inmates.

The man is the fourth Colorado prison inmate to die after having COVID-19 symptoms. The other three were housed at the Sterling Correctional Facility, which has had 564 confirmed COVID-19 cases and at one point had the state’s worst outbreak of the disease. The most recent previous death occurred on May 31.

In all, more than 1,400 Colorado prisoners across 10 facilities have tested positive for COVID-19 since March.

The Colorado Department of Corrections, citing medical privacy laws, declined to release the name of the Fremont Correctional Facility inmate who died. The agency also didn’t say if the man tested positive for COVID-19.

“The CDOC has been conducting regular staff testing over the last several months, in coordination with medical and public health experts,” Annie Skinner, a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections, said in a written statement. “The department has also been conducting inmate surveillance testing in order to identify and quarantine those who are positive to mitigate the spread of the virus within the facilities. The vast majority of inmates that have tested positive have been asymptomatic or have had very mild symptoms.”