COVID-19 measures in place in congested police stations’ detention cells
Police Colonel Josefino Ligan, chief of Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) gives an update on the arrest of individuals who violated the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) order in a press briefing on Monday morning, April 13, 2020.
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Policemen in the 11 police stations in Cebu City are implementing strict personal hygiene inside their respective station’s detention cells amid the recent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases recorded inside the Cebu City Jail.
Read more: BJMP-7 confirms 1 jail officer infected with COVID-19
Police Colonel Josefino Ligan, Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) chief, has ordered all policemen manning the detention cells to make sure all inmates take a bath everyday.
Ligan said he gave the order because of the vulnerability of the detainees in congested cells from the COVID-19.
“Congested lang gihapon pero ataong gi maintain ilang hygiene dayun dili lang maka sulod ilahang mga dalaw,” said Ligan.
(It is still congested, however, we are maintaining their hygiene, and visitors would not be allowed.)
In previous reports, in the first week of April before the previous acting CCPO chief, Police Colonel Hector Grijaldo, was relieved from his post.
Read more: 684 curfew, ECQ violators crowd CCPO’s detention cells – Grijaldo
Grijaldo claimed that there were at least 600 detainees in the detention cells of the 11 police stations of Cebu City at that time, who were mostly curfew and enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) violators.
He said that the cells were congested because these 11 detention cells were only made to hold 20 persons or 220 persons.
This meant that there were 380 more detainees in these 11 cells or an average of at least 50 persons for a cell that was made to hold only 20 persons.
On Tuesday, April 21, Ligan, for his part, said that with the ECQ violators, it was difficult to ease congestion of the detention cells.
However, he said that they would continue to implement their own measures through person and cell cleanliness as a way to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in detention cells.
Another COVID-19 measure implemented was the police health services were monitoring the detainees and checking those who might have symptoms related to COVID-19.
Ligan said so far, no detainee had been reported to have been showing COVID-19 symptoms./dbs
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