4th Cook County Jail detainee with coronavirus dies

A fourth inmate at Cook County Jail who tested positive for the coronavirus has died, the sheriff’s office announced Sunday.

The 64-year-old old man died Sunday at Stroger Hospital after being admitted April 14, the sheriff’s office said. Though he tested positive for COVID-19, an autopsy has been scheduled to determine the official cause of death.

The man was being held without bail on a first-degree murder charge stemming from a January 2019 incident, the sheriff’s office said.

As of Sunday afternoon, 399 inmates at Cook County Jail had tested positive for the coronavirus since the outbreak began, according to sheriff’s office data. Twenty-one are currently being treated at local hospitals, while 180 have since recovered and are being monitored at a recovery facility in the jail.

Additionally, 304 staff members have tested positive, including 191 correctional officers and 34 other employees who still have the virus.

Nickolas Lee, 42, was the third detainee to die from the virus. He died April 12, after his wife says she called the sheriff’s office 132 times to beg for his transfer.

“Everything Sheriff’s officers and county medical professionals have done since before the virus started spreading in the Chicago area was in an effort to prevent the loss of life to this deadly virus,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement. “We will continue to work round-the-clock to aggressively combat the spread of COVID-19.”