No fewer than eight inmates on death row in California, United States have died of coronavirus.

Child killer John Beames, 67, is the latest to die at San Quentin State Prison, north of San Francisco.

He was sentenced to death in Tulare County in 1995 for the murder and torture of a 15-month-old.

Beames, who died of what appeared to be complications related to COVID-19 on Tuesday, is one of 15 inmates to have died with suspected coronavirus at the prison, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

The prison is experiencing the worst jail outbreak in California, with almost two-thirds of its inmates already infected.

So far there have been 2,125 confirmed COVID-19 infections at the prison which has a population of 3,497.

It had previously avoided an outbreak until several detainees from the California Institution for Men in Chino were transferred there in late May, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR).

Since then, the outbreak has ravaged through the prison’s inmates and has hit death row the hardest. Over half of the deaths in the prison to this point were inmates on death row, which is the largest in the US.

On Monday, child rapist Troy Ashmus, 58, died with suspected COVID-19 complications amid the outbreak sweeping through the prison.

There have been more than 7,300 confirmed COVID-19 cases among inmates in the state prison system

More than 800 employees also have active cases of COVID-19, according to corrections officials.