RALEIGH, N.C. — Officials have announced the first COVID-19-related death of an offender inside North Carolina’s state prison system.
The Division of Prisons says that a prisoner at the medium-security Pender Correctional institution in Burgaw died at an unnamed hospital on Tuesday, nearly two weeks after he started showing viral symptoms.
The agency won’t release the prisoner’s name but says he was in his late 50s and had preexisting conditions complicated by the new coronavirus.
At least nine other state prisons have reported positive COVID-19 cases among those serving sentences.
The largest outbreak is at Neuse Correctional Institution in Goldsboro, where there are over 440 positive cases.
