Another prison official at Worcester in the Boland has tested positive for COVID-19. This brings to eight the number of officials in the Western Cape who have the coronavirus -four at the Worcester Correctional Centre and four at the Ceres Correctional Centre.
Correctional Services Spokesperson, Singabakho Nxumalo, says there are four cases at Worcester’s Correctional Centre and four at the Warm Bokkeveld Prison in Ceres.
“We are monitoring the situation quite closely and still busy with the tracing of direct contacts so that we can prevent any potential spread of the virus and to ensure that those who are inside do get to be protected. We’re making a call to our officials that they really have to be mindful of their movements outside our premises,” says Nxumalo.
The Department of Health in the Western Cape says it’s working closely with Correctional centres where officials tested positive for COVID-19.
Head of the provincial Department of Health, Doctor Keith Cloete says 64 officials have been screened at the Worcester centre and five inmates have been isolated.
“We are working very closely with authorities at Correctional Services. They have their own medical services but we are working in collaboration. So, our health teams in each of the areas where there’s a prison to look at their processes and protocols for distancing and for hygiene and for cloth masking, doing everything in our power to make sure that our people are safe in prisons.”
In the video below, Ronald Lamola talks about testing at the Correctional Services centres:
In the Eastern Cape, nine officials from the Department of Correctional Services have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total number of cases to 94.
The total number of inmates with COVID-19 remains unchanged at 56.
The East London Correctional Facility is the only one amongst the country’s 243 centres where inmates have tested positive.
In the Western Cape, seven officials have tested positive for the coronavirus, in Limpopo one official and also one official at Head Office.
All 27 inmates who were tested at St. Albans in Port Elizabeth are negative. The screening of officials and those accessing Corrective Services’ premises remains in force. Decontamination is also underway where positive cases have been reported.
In the video below, 26 cases of COVID-19 in East London Correctional Centre have been confirmed:
