GORDON OSEN

Thirty-one prisoners have tested positive for coronavirus in targeted testing involving 59 samples. 

Commissioner General of Prisons Wycliffe Ogallo on Sunday announced that the samples were collected from remandees and convicts on Thursday in a mass testing drive to establish the extent of the spread of the virus in the insitutions. 

Ogallo said those tested had completed 21 days of quarantine at the Nairobi Remand Prison where they had been admitted from various courts.

He said once the results were received on Saturday, the Nairobi County Covid-19 Emergency Response Team promptly evacuated the patients to various treatment centres for case management.

The cases raise questions of how many more prisoners could be infected already and are spreading the virus without knowing. 

The development comes after Embu Governor Martin Wambora last Thursday said an inmate at the Embu GK Prison tested positive for the virus.

He had said the inmate who had been transferred to the correctional facility after he was convicted of a capital offence hailed from Tharaka Nithi.

He said the inmate had been isolated and are arrangements were being made to move him to the city for treatment.

It was not clear at the time whether the infected inmate had interacted with other prisoners, the governor said. 

Despite the high number of positive cases detected, the Prisons commissioner general said “perfect calm has since prevailed at the facility” and that “all the convicts and remandees currently in our custody are safe.”

Last month, 11,000 petty offenders were released.

But in light of the latest numbers, Ogallo said, mechanisms to prevent the spread of the disease were regularly being reviewed and radical measures might be taken if need be.

“The suspension of all visits to our prison stations, Borstal institutions, and youth corrective training centers has also proved effective in mitigating the spread of the virus to the prison population,” he said.

Source: The Star