COVID-19 in five prisons

Five main prisons have fallen like dominoes to the coronavirus, with 148 prisoners and four staff members being affected.

“The Welikada, Bogambara, Matara, Kuruwita and Colombo Remand Prisons of the 29 prisons countrywide have been affected by the second wave of COVID-19,” confirmed the Commissioner of Prisons ( Administration and Rehabilitation ), Chan dana Ekanayake on Wednesday night.

The positive cases were detected through random but regular RT-PCR testing in the first week of November, it is learnt.

Ninety- four of those who have tested positive are women and 54 are men.

The breakdown of numbers is: Welikada – 20 men, 92 women and two staff members; Bogambara – 30 men and two staff members; Matara: -- one woman; Kuruwita – one woman; and Colombo Remand – 4 men.

All those who have tested positive have been sent to the National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID), Angoda, and their close contacts into quarantine at an isolation centre demarcated at the Angunukolapelessa Prison premises. All new remandees from various courthouses are sent into quarantine at the Bogambara Prison which has been turned into a quarantine centre.

The Commissioner said that those being released from prison undergo RT-PCR testing to ensure that they are not taking the virus into the community. The Public Health Inspector (PHI) and police station in the area where the released prisoner lives are informed about his/ her return home.

When the Sunday Times asked about reports that remandee A. K. Fathima Hadiya, the wife of the alleged Easter Sunday attack mastermind, Zahran Hashim, had tested positive, Mr. Ekanayake declined to give information on individuals.

They have yet not found how the virus got into the prisons, he said, explaining that a possibility could be staff coming in and going out, as they have to go back home.

He conceded that overcrowding in prisons is a problem. Even though all the prisons can only accommodate 11,000, there are 32,000 prisoners currently. As such, keeping a metre distance between prisoners is impossible and this leads to high transmissibility if the virus gets in.

They are making an effort through the court system to reduce the number of people being sent to prison by granting bail to those who have been charged with having in their possession less than 1 gram of narcotics and sending those charged with drug-related offences to rehabilitation centres such as Kanadakadu, said Mr. Ekanayake.

Since the positive cases detected in the prisons are high, the staff is working on a roster basis and has been requested to stay in quarters in the prison. The shift rotation is every 14 days. Contact with the outside has been limited and suppliers only allowed in certain areas of the prison, it is understood.

At the time of going to press, the number of prisoners affected by COVID-19 had risen to 159.