Maryland has first prison inmate death from coronavirus

Maryland’s first prison inmate has died from the coronavirus, the state’s corrections department said Monday.

The inmate, who was at the Jessup Correctional Institution, died Saturday after having been hospitalized for several weeks, the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services said in a news release.

The inmate was in his 60s and had serious underlying medical conditions, the department said.

The department has confirmed a total of 93 cases of COVID-19 as of Sunday night. They include 18 inmates and 47 correctional officers. They also include three employees in the Division of Parole and Probation and 22 contractual staff, as well as one clinical health employee and two administrative employees.

Most of the cases in the system are at the Jessup Correctional Institution in Jessup, Maryland. The facility has had 33 total cases, include 10 inmates, 13 officers and 10 contract employees. The second highest number of cases have been reported at the Maryland Reception, Diagnostics and Classification Center in Baltimore where there have been 12 cases, including one inmate and 11 officers.

Separately, the architecture firm HKS is working with the Army Corps of Engineers to convert a deactivated wing of the Hagerstown Correctional Facility into a field hospital. The firm says its team mobilized Saturday and is working 24 hours a day to open the field hospital within a few weeks with 192 beds for nonacute COVID-19 patients.

Meanwhile, Maryland reported Monday morning it has confirmed at least 8,936 cases and 262 deaths so far. That marked an increase of 711 cases and 27 deaths from the day before. There have have been 42,815 negative tests in the state and 1,975 hospitalizations.

Maryland’s two most populous counties outside the nation’s capital have the most cases. Prince George’s County has had 2,205 cases, and Montgomery has had 1,756 cases.

On Sunday, Gov. Larry Hogan announced the state would start listing cases by zip code in Maryland. Of the top 10 ZIP codes for cases, five were in Prince George’s County and three were in Montgomery County. The ZIP code with the highest number of cases — 153 — includes part of northwest Baltimore.

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.