There are currently coronavirus outbreaks at state prisons in Anamosa, Clarinda and Rockwell City. And state officials say a 70-year-old man sentenced to life in prison 29 years ago for murder has died, likely from complications related to Covid-19.
Authorities say the inmate, who was in declining health, had been transferred from the Anamosa prison to a hospital in Iowa City, where he died Sunday. The Iowa Department of Corrections conducted mass testing of inmates at the Anamosa prison last week and the agency’s website shows 490 inmates at the Anamosa prison, along with 51 staff at the facility, currently have the virus.
At the state prison in Clarinda, 377 inmates and 13 staff members have Covid. There’s also an outbreak at the state prison in Rockwell City, where 254 inmates and four staff members have the virus.
So far this year, five inmates in Iowa prisons have died of Covid. A spokesman for the department says over 12-hundred inmates have recovered from the virus and the vast majority of inmates who have contracted Covid this year had no symptoms or experienced only mild symptoms. Inmates at state prisons where Covid outbreaks have been identified are generally restricted to their cells to try to stop the spread of the virus.