Mayor Bill de Blasio announced changes to how the Rikers Island prison complex will process new inmates and screen them for health issues, responding to a recent death of an inmate who spent 10 days in an intake facility. 

Isaabdul Karim, 42, went into medical distress after being held in a crowded intake cell with other new inmates, where he contracted COVID-19, NY1 has reported. The city said it is investigating Karim’s death. 

This year has seen 11 inmate deaths at the complex, including five by suicide.

De Blasio said that the prison would add two additional intake clinics and one more housing unit to ensure that all detainees and inmates go through intake within 24 hours. 

Dr. Mitchell Katz, the head of the city’s Health+Hospitals corporation, said intake would happen at a larger clinic to allow for social distancing.

“We’re giving every resource to address this issue,” de Blasio said. “It will be fixed.”

The seven-day test positivity rate at Rikers is 5.17%, Katz said Tuesday. The citywide average positivity rate over the past four weeks is 3.73%, according to city data.