Second Cook County Jail inmate dies after positive test for virus
A second Cook County Jail inmate has died after testing positive for the coronavirus, reports CBS Chicago. Leslie Pieroni, 51, was pronounced dead Thursday evening at a local hospital, according to the Cook County Sheriff's office.
He'd been hospitalized since Friday after testing positive for due to COVID-19 concerns, but ordered sheriff's staffers to implement new safety measures to stop the spread of the disease.
The jail has been called the single largest coronavirus hotspot in the country, but Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart claims the big numbers are the result of aggressive testing. He said the totals often associated with the jail also include 150 COVID-positive sheriff's staff members even though some don't actually work in the jail facility.
"They threw in employees who are police officers who have never been in the jail, clerks who have never been in the jail," he said. "So that's a bit of a problem. My 5-year-old would have nailed the math a little better than they did."
He also says almost all the new safety steps are already in place.
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