3 WA prison COVID deaths this week. The latest in Walla Walla

A second inmate at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla has died from a COVID-19 related illness.

The Washington state Department of Corrections said Friday that the man died on Dec. 31 at an area hospital.

No other information was released about his age or what he was serving time for.

It was the third COVID-related Washington prison death this week.

Correctional Officer David A. Christensen, 62, of the Stafford Creek Corrections Center in Aberdeen, died Tuesday and an inmate at Airway Heights Corrections Center died Dec. 26, state officials reported.

Since the start of the pandemic 10 months ago, seven inmates and two corrections officers, both in their 60s, have died of COVID complications.

Two of the inmates were serving time at Coyote Ridge in Connell — 72-year-old William Bryant and 68-year-old Victor Bueno.

Earlier this week, staff in a long-term care unit at the Connell prison and geriatric inmates with chronic medical needs started receiving the COVID-19 vaccine in an attempt to stop the rapid spread of the virus through state facilities.

The Washington state Department of Corrections announced that it has been given limited doses by the Department of Health, and worked with health officials to prioritize early recipients.

The state’s two-dozen prisons and work release sites have 1,959 active COVID-19 cases as of Thursday, and 2,442 recovered cases.

The average daily population in Washington’s prisons and work release facilities was 15,111 as of November.

State prison officials said they remain committed to science-based health practices and are following the established COVID-19 screening, testing and infection control guidelines as they continue to try to contain the spread of the virus.

“Washington State Penitentiary continues to place living units on quarantine in an effort to limit transmission among the incarcerated population,” said the release.

The facility began COVID testing all staff on a weekly basis starting in August and has tested all inmates in the Medium Security Complex, said the release.

The prison has a capacity for 2,439 individuals and an average daily population of 2,021, said the state.

This story was originally published January 1, 2021 at 1:00 PM.