An Akron man has become the seventh inmate to die from the coronavirus at the Elkton Federal Correctional Institution in Columbiana County.

According to the Bureau of Prisons, 55-year-old Richard Nesby died on Sunday, nearly three weeks after he was hospitalized for pneumonia and less than a week after he was placed on a ventilator.

Nesby was imprisoned in October 2019, serving a five-year sentence for being a felon in possession of a firearm.

The Bureau of Prisons says Nesby had long-term, pre-existing medical conditions, which the CDC lists as risk factors for developing more severe COVID-19 disease, was pronounced dead by hospital staff.

Fifty-one Elkton inmates and 48 staff members have tested positive for COVID-19.

Word of the latest death at Elkton comes less than a week after the Bureau of Prisons announced that it is expanding COVID-19 testing of inmates using the Abbott ID NOW instrument for Rapid RNA testing.

 

The device, which has been in use at Elkton since April 15, can test for the presence of COVID-19 in just minutes.

At the request of the American Civil Liberties Union, a federal judge recently ordered the Bureau of Prisons to identify inmates who are at-risk for coronavirus and find a way of moving them out of the prison.