George County inmate dies of COVID-19, sheriff says

An inmate at the George County jail died Saturday due to complications from COVID-19, the sheriff said in a press release Sunday night.

The inmate was not identified, but Sheriff Keith Havard said the 48-year-old was a Mississippi Department of Corrections inmate housed in the George County Regional Correctional Facility.

The inmate was admitted to the hospital Wednesday after complaining of chest pains, and was moved to “the COVID wing.”

After “a brief illness” the inmate died shortly after 9 a.m. Saturday.

Havard said in the release he “would like to reassure the public that all possible steps are being taken to care for those who are ill and to mitigate the further spread of the virus, including deep cleaning of all frequently touched surfaces, such as light switches, door knobs, hand rails, workstations, and countertops.”

The sheriff also offered his condolences to the inmate’s family.

The George County jail has the state’s largest COVID-19 outbreak so far in a correctional facility. At the end of the July there were 229 confirmed cases at the jail, which is about half of its population.

Prisoners who have the virus are under quarantine and kept in the same area of the jail, Harvard has said.

An officer who was sick with the virus, but didn’t realize, it is believed to have first introduced it into the jail.

The Mississippi State Department of Health on Sunday reported 22 new coronavirus cases in George County, an increase of 34 cases over a week.

Sun Herald reporter Margaret Baker contributed to this reporting.