Police Lieutenant Colonel Wilbert Parilla, deputy director for operations of the Cebu City Police Office. | file photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — At least 44 detainees ‘positive’ for COVID-19 await transfer to the Cebu City jail pending their medical certificates.
Police Lieutenant Colonel Wilbert Parilla, deputy director for operations of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), said that of the 44 detainees, 22 were confirmed positive for COVID-19 after they had their swab tests.
Pending their medical certificates, Parilla said that they had already considered the remaining 22 detainees as positive since they were placed together in their respective detention cells, one for males and the other for females.
Regardless if they would be positive or negative for COVID-19, Parilla said that the city jail personnel would be responsible in isolating them for a month because they had isolation centers there.
He further said that these detainees were all asymptomatic.
He said that they would wait that all their detainees would be transferred to the Cebu City Jail before they would decontaminate their two detention cells in their headquarters.
These detainees were only waiting for their medical certificates from the city health as a requirement for their transfer to the city jail.
Pending their transfer, Parilla said that their apprehensions for now would be temporarily placed in the police stations and they would accommodate detainees again at CCPO detention cells only after decontaminating the facility.
For their personnel, Parilla said that they already placed barriers from the rest of the offices since their detention facilities were embedded in the CCPO building.
With this, the duty personnel responsible in guarding these detainees are also isolated and no other personnel will be allowed to stay near the area.
They also require these personnel to wear Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for their protection.
They have already temporarily prohibit visitations there, adding that those relatives who wanted to leave food could place them at the gate and the duty police officer would be the one to hand these to the detainee.
As of now, Parilla said that they had at least four COVID-19 cases among their police force but these were already isolated.
RELATED STORIES
Visitation in CCPO detention suspended
45 inmates with cough and colds at Cebu City Jail segregated, monitored
Cebu City Jail warden concerns: Contrabands, congestion
Abueva: We don’t have a perfect facility
/dbs