98 Officers, inmates contracted COVID-19 – Prisons Service

The Ghana Prisons Service has disclosed that a total of 98 officers and inmates across the country contracted coronavirus.

According to the service, the number represents cases recorded since March this year adding that most of the cases were recorded in November.

“From March till now. For inmates, we had a total of forty-four cases, for officers we had a total of fifty-four cases. And I must say that as we speak now all of them have recovered. We don’t have an active case at the moment,” Chief PRO of the service, Superintendent Courage Atsem said.

No COVID-19 related deaths were recorded in any of the country’s prisons.

The government had earmarked Ghana’s prisons as one of the institutions likely to suffer the brunt of the pandemic.

It, therefore, put in place strict measures the prevent the spread of the virus amongst officers and inmates.

Visiting of inmates was banned, with court cases involving prisoner movement suspended during the first few months of the outbreak.

Touching on further measures that were taken after the virus hit the country’s prisons, Superintendent Courage Atsem said separate rooms were created for the affected persons.

He noted that “all the cases recorded especially from the side of the inmates were imported to the prison. It was through the inmates that the officers also got infected.

“Through the admission process and all. So, what the police administration did was to designate seven facilities purposely for new admissions. The idea was that we didn’t want to add new inmates whose status we didn’t know, to the existing stock.”

“Because we know that due to the congestion, should one case happen, based on the total number, the rate of transmission will be very fast and huge. Therefore the prisons administration designated these facilities just for new admissions. And because the numbers were not huge we were able to manage. Some rooms were designated for isolation and management of such cases.

Testing

Superintendent Atsem said due to the Prisons’ inability to conduct COVID-19 tests, persons who were sent to the prisons had to be quarantined to ensure they did not infect others in case they had already contracted the virus.

“We have our infirmaries and a few medical staff who monitor. They do not do the testing because we don’t have the facility to do covid testing in our prisons.”

“When people are brought into our custody, they are kept under observation, monitored by our medical staff and if anybody shows any symptoms or any signs, the person is referred to the appropriate quarters for testing.”

Covid Safety Protocols

The PRO revealed that because social distancing was impossible due to congestion, mask-wearing, washing of hands, and limited mass gathering were being effectively observed.”

He maintained “they have masks, all of them. As for the mask-wearing, it’s something they observe very well. As for social distancing, it’s impossible.”

“I think that maybe some of us got it and recovered and never got to know,” he added.