Faribault, MN (KROC AM News) - Another Minnesota prison inmate has died after contracting COVID-19. 

He was an inmate at the correctional facility in Faribault, where the first inmate to die from the virus had been incarcerated. The man was identified as 71-year-old  Leroy Wallace Bergstrom. 

The Minnesota Dept. of Corrections says he had been hospitalized in critical condition since June 16. He tested positive for COVID-19 on June 10.  The DOC says another inmate Minnesota remains hospitalized while undergoing treatment.

The first case of COVID-19 in the Faribault correctional facility was reported on June 3. The Department of Corrections has since been conducting ongoing comprehensive testing of all incarcerated men and staff at the facility. As of Friday, 4,892 tests of incarcerated individuals had been conducted at the Faribault facility, with 206 tests positive. Most who tested positive are experiencing no symptoms. As of Sunday, 1,718 men were incarcerated at Faribault.

The DOC has taken a number of steps across the system to manage the risk of COVID-19 entering correctional facilities and spreading. In addition, the DOC has implemented efforts to reduce facility population to aid virus containment strategies. As of June 25, the DOC had a population of 7,962 in the state’s prisons down from about 8,900 on March 1.

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