Infections at city jail quadruple in 17 days

By Uriel Quilinguing, Contributing Editor .

AT least 119 inmates and a jail officer contracted Covid-19 at the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology’s facility in Barangay Lumbia, this city, in just over two weeks.

This, after 41 more inmates, including a female, tested positive for Sars-Cov-2 on Saturday.

Dr. Joselito Retuya Jr., a resident epidemiologist of the CHO, in a pandemic response update at city hall, said the 41 inmates were among the 62 found to be infected which brought the city’s cumulative total to 1,434 Covid-19 cases.

Retuya, on Oct. 6, reported that 28 inmates caught the virus and were placed in a BJMP 10 temporary treatment and monitoring facility at Lumbia, where the male and female dormitories that house some 2,040 inmates are.

The infections came after 221 detainees from police station cells in this city were brought to the BJMP facility at Lumbia, waiting for commitment orders from the courts for the crimes they were accused of.

“They must have been infected while they were in police station cells,” said Retuya, adding that the virus was detected at the holding area, a structure separate from two detached male and female dormitory buildings.

Of the 221 inmates who were swabbed, 112 tested positive and that 98 were asymptomatic, according to Dr. Ted Yu, a medical officer of the CHO tasked to oversee the health conditions of jail officers and inmates.

Yu said 13 of them have already recovered but 99 were still positive in the follow-up swabbing. These, aside from the 28 who were reported earlier to be virus carriers and some had already been cleared from infections.

He said of that 11 female inmates, only one test yielded positive result. Also of the jail officers who risk-assessed for their exposures, one had caught the virus.

Meanwhile, Jail C/Supt. Ester Galvez Pepito, director of BJMP Region 10, in a statement posted online Friday, said all jails in Northern Mindanao were placed on lockdown since March 20, five days after the President declared a state of health emergency.

“I won’t let BJMP Region X succumb to the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Pepito and vowed all programs set before the pandemic struck would be implemented, inspecting facility construction projects, holding virtual “talk to troops,” and e-mess monitoring of food services.

She said the Covid-19 pandemic has brought the BJMP 10 to a new level, beyond physical limitations, hence the practice of e-dalaw, e-hearings, e-legal consultations, online bible studies, online masses, and webinars were resorted to.

“We may not be able to control the situation but we can control ourselves: our thoughts, actions, and choices,” said the BJMP 10 official, the first female ever to the post in the region.

Incidentally, JSupt. Gregorio Acacio, the city jail warden at Lumbia, was a recipient of the BJMP’s ‘Best City Jail Warden’ award last Thursday.

Starting yesterday, the 33rd Prison Awareness Sunday, until Oct. 31, the BJMP is observing the National Correctional Consciousness Week with the theme: “Seguridad ay Paigtingin, Manatiling Ligtas sa Covid-19.”