3rd COVID death at Minnesota's Moose Lake sex offender facility

A client housed in a Minnesota sex-offender treatment facility has died from COVID-19, state officials said.

Friday's death at the Moose Lake facility was the third COVID-related fatality in the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP) since the pandemic surfaced early last year in Minnesota.

"We mourn his passing and extend our deepest sympathy to those who loved him and called him friend," according to a statement from Human Services Commissioner Jodi Harpstead, whose agency runs the program. "The toll the pandemic continues to take in human lives is tragic."

The previous deaths occurred Dec. 2 and 9, both of them men who also were at Moose Lake. The sex-offender program also has operations in St. Peter.

Under patient data-privacy laws, no further information — such as the person's age or medical background — can be released, the Department of Human Services (DHS) said.

As of Monday, there were no active cases of COVID-19 among the nearly 740 civilly committed clients in MSOP facilities, according to DHS.

The facilities at Moose Lake and St. Peter "have implemented stringent infection prevention and control measures to protect clients and staff from COVID-19," a DHS statement said. Those measures include daily screenings of staffers for symptoms, a cloth mask requirement and voluntary mass testing of staff and clients one day a week.

Testing will continue until the facilities have gone two weeks without a new positive case, according to DHS.

In addition, clients are allowed to interact only with others living in their unit. Outside visitors are prohibited with the exception of "essential service providers" and vendors, who are screened before entering, the DHS statement said. Anyone with a confirmed infection is quarantined or isolated.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482