27 COVID cases confirmed at South Camp juvenile centre

Twenty-seven COVID cases have been confirmed at the South Camp Road Juvenile Correctional Facility in St Andrew.

This comprises 19 correctional officers and eight wards of the state.

The development means that the virus has now been detected in five correctional facilities.

The others are: the St Catherine, Tower Street, and Tamarind Farm Adult Correctional facilities as well as the Horizon Adult Remand Centre.

It also means a doubling of the number of COVID cases in penal institutions with the total now at 51.

Meanwhile, in a statement, the Department of Correctional Service (DCS) said the 18 COVID-positive correctional officers at the South Camp juvenile centre are now in home isolation.

It did not say what has happened to the wards.

However, the DCS said there was deep cleaning at the South Camp facility today in a bid to curtail potential spread of the virus.

It is understood that most of the cases at the juvenile facility are asymptomatic.

In the statement, the Director of Medical Services in the DCS, Dr Donna-Michelle Royer-Powe said this is the case for the majority of COVID infections recorded in the penal facilities.

“Most confirmed cases have been identified because of contact tracing, line listing and targeted testing in the institutions,” she is quoted as saying.

Royer-Powe also reported that there have been 16 recoveries.

At the same time, she said the latest targeted testing programme at the Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre has returned 99 negative results.

The statement did not say whether there were any new positive results or how many tests were done.

The DCS website indicates that there have been 15 COVID cases at Tower Street.

In the meantime, the DCS said there has been increased procurement of surgical masks per person per day and supplemental sanitisation supplies have been distributed to the correctional centres to increase cleaning.