Over thirty prisoners along with several prison officers have tested positive for the novel coronavirus at three different prisons in Guyana.
This was revealed by Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony during his daily COVID-19 update yesterday, where he stated that previously, COVID-19 cases were recorded at the Lusignan Prison and it is only recently that cases are being seen at other prisons.
“Well we have had cases in the prisons as you know but these have been primarily at Lusignan and last year September we did have a number of cases that would have occurred at Lusignan,” he said while adding that as of yesterday there were “a few” cases, and after being tested and identified, these have been isolated at a special facility at the prison.
“Those cases having being tested and identified, we have now isolated them in a special part at the Lusignan prison,” the minister noted.
He further mentioned that after testing was conducted by health officials in Region Six for prison officers, four prison officers have tested positive for the virus along with one inmate. “Four of them [prison officers] have tested positive and so those four officers have been put in home isolation. We have also had one prisoner in New Amsterdam who has tested positive and that person has been placed in isolation as well.”
The minister went on to add that 33 prisoners have tested positive for the virus at the Timehri Prisons and they too have been isolated from the rest of the prison population.
As it relates to the condition of the inmates, he stated that those prisoners will be monitored by the medical staff at the prison. In addition, most of the prisoners who have tested positive are asymptomatic and as long as they complete the ten-day isolation period, they will be discharged.
