A 51-year-old immigration detainee died Sunday at a Palm Beach County hospital after testing positive for the coronavirus. The Mexican national’s death is Florida’s first reported COVID-19 death of a detainee.
The detainee — identified by U.S. Immigration and Custom’s Enforcement late Monday as Onoval Perez-Montufa — was transported to a hospital about two weeks ago from the Glades County Detention Center in Moore Haven, a facility that is now among the top 10 centers with the highest number of COVID cases.
Officials say he was pronounced dead at 4:27 p.m. by hospital staff at the Lakeside Medical Center in Belle Glade, Florida, where he had been receiving inpatient treatment since July 1 after reporting shortness of breath. He tested positive for the virus the following day at the hospital.
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