A 67-year-old man is the first Tarrant County inmate to die after testing positive for COVID-19, the sheriff's office says.
The inmate, who was moved to John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, died Saturday of the coronavirus and underlying health conditions, according to the Tarrant County Sheriff's Office.
The sheriff's office said the man, who was not identified, was booked into Tarrant County Detention facilities Feb. 20 for two counts of DWI felony repetition.
He was moved to JPS Hospital on May 3.
While the man's death is the first among Tarrant County inmates, more than 600 of the 1,500-plus inmates at Federal Medical Center Fort Worth have tested positive for the coronavirus in recent weeks, and at least eight of those inmates have died.
The eighth inmate's death at FMC Fort Worth was reported May 15.
On April 11, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice sent a letter to county sheriffs instructing them to temporarily halt the intake of new inmates to state facilities from county jails in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
