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| Chin'ono and Ngarivhume in leg irons being taken to Chikurubi |
INMATES in Harare prisons remain safe from Covid-19
positive cases despite 53 positive cases found among officers, prisons medical
director has said.
Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Service (ZPCS) medical
director Dr Evidence Gaka said this on Monday at Chikurubi Maximum Prison
during an awareness to discourage members of the public to visit inmates.
He said 191 positive cases that includes inmates and prison
officers had been recorded and more than 2000 people under went Covid-19
testing.
Prison officers found positive are currently at 118 with 53
cases recorded among inmates.
Harare and Masvingo prisons have not recorded any positive
cases among its inmates while Bulawayo leads other provinces with 67 inmates
and 34 officers.
Midlands has 23 officers and two inmates found positive,
Matabeleland South has four officers and four inmates.
“As Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Service we have put a
number of measures in place in an effort to curb the spread of Covid-19 in
prisons,” said Dr Gaka.
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“Among the health measures includes foot bath, hand
washing, sanitizing and religious putting on of face masks.
“Every day we receive new admissions from magistrate courts
and we do not mix them with other inmates but quarantine them and tests them.
“We do carry contact tracing among our officers and inmates
who share cells.
“At Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison we have a medical
laboratory with a Gene Expert machine we use to test tuberculosis, syphilis and
it has been upgraded with new software to be able to test Covid-19.
“With enough consumables like cartridges the machine can
test four people at a time and get results within an hour,” said Dr Gaka.
ZPCS discourages visits to prisons and are carrying
campaigns against visiting of inmates throughout the country in an effort to
curb the spread of Covid-19.
Inmates on remand can be visited by one person each week
and first preference is given to their medical doctors and legal practitioners.
H Metro
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