BJMP starts contact tracing of 127 COVID-positive city jail inmates, officers

A scene inside Cebu City Jail during a greyhound operation last February 29, 2020. (CDN Digital Photo/Alven Marie Timtim)

CEBU CITY, Philippines — At least 114 inmates and 13 jail officers of the Cebu City Jail are now under isolation after their samples tested positive for the coronavirus disease.

These personnel include the 123 new cases in Cebu City reported by the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7) on Wednesday, April 22, 2020, and the two inmates and two jail guards that the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP-7) confirmed on Monday, April 20.

With a total of 127 confirmed cases, the jail makes up about 41 percent of the 311 COVID-19 cases in Cebu City.

BJMP-7, in their official statement, said the positive cases were already under isolation when the results of their tests were released on Wednesday afternoon.

Read: Cebu City jail inmate dies of COVID-19

Read: COVID-19 reported in Cebu City Jail

Jail Senior Inspector Dr. Jay Ylanan, chief of the BJMP-7 Health Services Unit, said their agency is now conducting an intensified contact tracing “to detect other possible possible carriers for immediate isolation and medical treatment.”

“He also assures the public, especially the family of the PDL and personnel that the BJMP will continue to provide more focused medical care to every patient until they fully recovered from the virus infection,” Ylanan said quoting BJMP-7 Director Chief Superintendent Efren Nemeño.

Importance of social/physical distancing

The CCJ Male Dormitory has second most number of coronavirus cases in the city, next only to the densely populated Barangay Luz having 139 cases.

DOH-7, in a separate statement, said the surge in the cases in CCJ is a “reminder of the importance of social/physical distancing in facilitating or preventing the transmission of the infection.”

“In settings where there is a high volume of people confined in a small space, it is very easy for any highly communicable disease to be transmitted from an index case to one’s close contacts. However, the administration in jail facilities, the local government and the DOH CVCHD have been working together to test, isolate and treat those who are infected,” DOH-7 Director Dr. Jaime Bernadas said.

The Cebu City Jail is among the penal facilities in the country that is haunted by congestion problems. CCJ was built to accommodate 1,900 prisoners but its current census reports that there are now over 6,000 heads housed in the jail.

Bernadas, however, assured the relatives of the detainees in CCJ that measures are already being taken to prevent further spread of the virus in the jail.

“We appeal to the families of the people deprived of liberty (PDLs) to stay in your homes. We assure you that measures are now being done to prevent further spread of COVID-19 and your loved ones are managed accordingly,” Bernadas said.

The news of COVID-19 breaking into Cebu City Jail first came out on Monday, April 21, when Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella confirmed that a 41-year-old inmate died from COVID-19 in a hospital in the city on Sunday evening.

The BJMP subsequently confirmed that aside from the inmate who died, another detainee and two jail officers also caught the virus. /bmjo