Thenumber of COVID-19 cases has exploded in one of California’s oldest prisons, SanQuentin, as more than 1,000 inmates have tested positive for the virus,
authorities in the US state announced Tuesday.“That isour deep area of focus and concern right now,” said Governor Gavin Newsom,noting that 42 percent of the 3,500 inmates at San Quentin, near San Francisco,are considered “medically vulnerable.”
Unlikeother penitentiaries in California, San Quentin State Prison had largely beenspared the ravages of coronavirus until the beginning of June. But the transferof inmates from prisons gravely affected by the virus, such as the CaliforniaInstitution for Men in Chino, opened the floodgates.
“Unfortunately,they arrived untested and were placed within San Quentin and really kind ofseeded an outbreak in a second state facility,” Matt Willis, the healthdirector for Marin County, where San Quentin is located, told NPR radio.
Thedetention center in Chino, near Los Angeles, was a known COVID-19 hotspot sincethe start of the pandemic. More than 500 inmates there have so far tested positivefor the virus, and seven have died.
SanQuentin prison currently makes up half of the recorded cases of COVID-19 inprisons throughout California, which has a total incarcerated population ofabout 113,000 people.
Californiais the most populated US state as well as one of the hardest-hit by thecoronavirus, with more than 200,000 confirmed cases and nearly 6,000 deaths.
In anattempt to avoid an abnormally high mortality rate among inmates, stateauthorities have decided to free some 3,500 detainees, who were arrested forminor offenses and had less than 180 days left to serve in prison.
Newsomannounced Monday that another 3,500 potential candidates had been identified
for freedom, 110 of whom are at San Quentin.