EL PASO, Texas – The El Paso County Detention Center has recorded its first death from coronavirus, officials confirmed Monday.
The victim was a man in his 70s who was a civilian employee at the downtown jail, county judge Ricardo Samaniego said.
The man died Friday of complications from Covid-19.
The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office said the man had worked in the jail for 18 years and that he was well liked by his co-workers.
“He was a cashier who worked the cemetery shift, dealing with vouchers and money from the store and things of that nature,” said Sheriff Richard Wiles.
Meanwhile, Wiles also indicated that the prison annex commander has been diagnosed with the virus and is now quarantined at home.
“Frankly, this thing is such a mobile target. For example, the prison commander in the prison annex came to work every day, without fever, without cough, without sore throat,” he tested positive. We got the results on Friday; we sent him home, “the sheriff told Commissioner Court on Monday afternoon.
The sheriff said asymptomatic spread is often difficult to combat in a prison setting.
“So (the commander) was actually fine and eventually you could have an employee like that who is working on the floors. Now they wear masks and also the commander, actually, but the employees wear masks, they clean their hands. Available. We require them to maintain the six-foot distance. So I guess what I’m trying to say is that there are so many unknowns with this virus that we can’t anticipate all the potential possibilities for transmission, but we’ve done a lot to eliminate those possibilities. “
The names of the deceased worker and the commander who tested positive were not disclosed.
