14 new COVID-19 cases at Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre
KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Department of Correctional Services (DCS) is reporting 14 new positive cases of COVID-19 at the Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre within the last 24 hours.
The DCS said of the new cases confirmed two are staff members and 12 are inmates.
“This development in the institution has occurred despite our rollout of protocols established by international bodies like the World Health Organization (WHO); Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other benchmark corrective organisations versed in the management of outbreaks within correctional institutions. These Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) protocols have been in effect across the department for well over six months,” Minister Without Portfolio in the Ministry of National Security, Matthew Samuda has said.
The minister indicated that the department would be revisiting its tracking measures given the situation and release results of the COVID-19 tests immediately rather than by its twice weekly (Tuesdays and Thursdays) modality on the dashboard on its website.
The DCS confirmed that all the positive test cases are placed in isolation and contact tracing and line listing activities are conducted to curtail the spread in the institution.
Minister Samuda also advised that the Department has been consultative in its approach to controlling the cases in the institutions, collaborating with the MOHW and Public Health departments to conduct tests in centres once positive cases are detected.
“We recently met with the public defender as well to ventilate existing measures at the facilities and seek counsel on what other measures she considered would aid us in our management of the pandemic,” Samuda said.
The department noted that the positive cases recorded in the correctional centres thus far have been largely asymptomatic.
Director of Medical Services Dr Donna-Michelle Royer-Powe indicated that, “In September alone, testing for COVID-19 saw almost 300 persons inclusive of correctional staff and inmates being swabbed, the last one being at the Tower Street Adult where we swabbed over 100 persons.”
