Prognosis
Virus Ravaging Historic Prison Spirals Into Health Crisis
- Almost half of population infected at California’s San Quentin
- Wealthy county that’s home to facility scales back reopenings
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A Covid-19 outbreak tearing through California’s San Quentin State Prison has ignited a broader crisis as gravely ill prisoners are transferred to hospitals throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, stretching capacity in a region already struggling with a spike in cases.
The state is converting parts of the 168-year-old facility to a treatment ward, erecting tents as care centers and reducing the population to try to quell a virus that has now infected more than 1,600 prisoners, about 47% of the San Quentin population. Two hundred staff members have tested positive, leading to worker shortages and concerns of spread to the public.