(Eagle News)–The Department of Justice is discussing the possibility of conducting COVID-19 testing in the Correctional Institute for Women in Mandaluyong.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra made the announcement after 18 inmates and one Bureau of Corrections employee tested positive for the virus.
The 19 were close contacts of a first inmate who tested positive for COVID-19 and was admitted in the Sta. Ana hospital.
According to Guevarra, they were “talking to certain parties, including the Red Cross,” for the conduct of mass testing in the facility, noting that they were responding to the situation “with dispatch.”
“The CIW has been instructed to immediately isolate these cases in its own quarantine facilities and bring to the hospital any PDL (person deprived of liberty) who manifests serious symptoms,” Guevarra said.
He said he has told both Undersecretary Deo Marco, who supervises the BuCor, and BuCor chief Gerald Bantag, to give “priority attention” to the BuCor’s facilities.
Earlier, the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, which has custody over facilities where detainees are held pending trial, also reported that nine BJMP personnel and nine detainees at the Quezon City jail had tested positive for the virus.
