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QINGDAO TODAY
在线翻译:
szdaily -> World -> 
Sheriff says inmates tried to infect themselves
    2020-05-13  08:53    Shenzhen Daily

TWO groups of inmates at a Los Angeles County jail in the United States tried to infect themselves with the coronavirus by sharing water and a mask, and within two weeks 30 prisoners tested positive, authorities said Monday.

Sheriff Alex Villanueva at a briefing showed surveillance videos from two dormitory units at the North County Correctional Facility in Castaic.

The footage captured inmates in one unit sharing a container of hot water and others in a second unit sniffing a mask.

Two of the 30 inmates, one from each unit, were later released from the jail as part of the department’s effort to reduce the prisoner population systemwide, according to Bruce Chase, the department’s assistant sheriff of custody operations.

Villanueva said the inmates used hot water to try to raise their temperatures just before a nurse checked them. An elevated temperature is a symptom for coronavirus.

The sheriff said the inmates mistakenly believed that if they were infected they would be freed.

“It’s dismaying and it’s disheartening,” he said.

None of the 30 inmates required critical care when they were sick, though some had moderate symptoms, Chase said. No prisoners within the county’s jail system — the largest in the country — have died from the virus.

Jails and prisons nationwide have become flashpoints in the pandemic. More than 25,000 inmates have been infected and about 350 have died nationwide — from Rikers Island in New York City to federal, state, and local lockups coast to coast, according to an unofficial tally kept by the COVID-19 Behind Bars Data Project run by UCLA Law.

In California, five inmates in a state prison in San Bernardino County have died from COVID-19 complications and outbreaks at federal penitentiaries at Terminal Island in San Pedro and Lompoc are considered among the country’s worst.

In Los Angeles County, the North County Correctional Facility didn’t have a single COVID-19 case in mid-April. Days later, nine inmates were flagged as being potentially sick, Chase said.(SD-Agencies)

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