An Orange County Jail inmate has died from COVID-19.
Mayor Jerry Demings says the 66 year old man passed away from the virus today.
Demings says the man was booked into the jail on August 12th and by August 13th he was demonstrating symptoms of COVID.
“So we believe that at the point he was arrested by law enforcement, he was already positive and booked into our jail.”
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Demings says the man was taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center for treatment where he eventually succumbed to his illness.
He says this is the first COVID death linked to the jail, but he says it may not be the last as cases of the virus continue to rise in the surrounding community.
“Individuals who are booked into our jail come from the community, in which all of us live, and so we know that it was just a matter of time before we had someone that was in our care and custody, that one would test positive and two that would likely die of the disease.”
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The county currently has a 70 percent vaccination rate, but reported an additional 191 deaths since last week. The ages range from 29 to 100 years old, with a median age of 71.
