This file photo courtesy of the Cebu City PIO shows a portion of the Cebu City Jail.
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Some 45 inmates or persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) or inmates with cough and colds have been segregated from their respective prison cells and monitored.
Jail Superintendent Jose Abueva of the Cebu City Jail Male Dormitory, who confirmed this action, said that these PDLs were monitored by jail nurses and were given medicine and vitamins.
Abueva said that these PDLs only had mild common cough and colds.
He also said that some of the PDLs had already underwent swab tests and they were negative for the virus.
With this, Abueva said that perhaps the cough and colds experienced by the affected PDLs were caused by the changing weather of the city today.
He said that the PDLs were monitored and some were also subjected to swab tests and tests for tuberculosis.
“Kanang ginamonitor namo karun puro ra na sila less mild, sa ilaha colds and coughs. Kung naay consistent isubject na namo sa swab test, so far negativa pa ta,” Abueva said.
(Those that we monitored now had mild cases of colds and coughs. If there were consistent ones, we had subjected them to a swab test, and so far the tests had been negative.)
“Kung more than two weeks na ang ubo, magcollect mi og sputum then isubject namo sa gene expert examination for PTB (pulmonary tuberculosis). Ingana atua proseso para mamonitor lang namo ang health condition sa atua PDL ,” he said.
(If cough of the PDL has been going on for two weeks already, then we will collect his sputum then we will subject him to a gene expert examination for PTB (pulmonary tuberculosis). That is the process in monitoring the health condition of our PDLs.)
He also assured that they would continue to monitor these PDLs and would decide if they would need to take another swab test.
Abueva admitted that for now, he could not cite a specific date when these PDLs were isolated since they were transferred not at the same time at the jails isolation cells.
Abueva recently assured that they had enough facilities needed to cater to these PDLs.
For now, Abueva said that they still would not allow visitation due to the threat of the COVID-19 virus.
According to Abueva, the Cebu City Jail has at least 6,000 inmates.
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