A US federal prison inmate who gave birth while she was on a ventilator has died of Covid-19.
Andrea Circle Bear, 30, died on 28 April while serving a 26-month sentence for a drug charge in South Dakota.
There have now been 30 coronavirus-related deaths of federal inmates, and more than 1,300 confirmed cases according to the Bureau of Prisons.
She seems to be the first federal female inmate to have died with coronavirus.
There are about 150,000 federal inmates in the US. A federal inmate is someone inside a prison or jail operated by the federal government as compared to a particular state.
No one is sure about how many inmates have died in state-run prisons.
Circle Bear was in prison for charges related to distributing methamphetamines filed by the US government in April 2018, to which she pleaded guilty.
She was moved from a jail in South Dakota to a federal prison and medical facility in Fort Worth, Texas on 20 March for undisclosed reasons, and quarantined as required by the prison for all new inmates.
The next week, Circle Bear was taken to a hospital over concerns about her pregnancy. She was discharged later that day.
However, she was hospitalised a few days later after displaying Covid-like symptoms and placed on a ventilator.
The next day her child was born by Caesarean section. She died on 28 April after testing positive for coronavirus earlier this month- the thirtieth federal inmate to die of Covid-19, and believed to be the first woman.
This is sad. Smh. This covid19 is no joke.
