At least 123 inmates jailed in Cebu City tested the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on Wednesday, making the total number of cases in the city to 312.
The jail, with a total of 127 inmates, is now the second area with the highest number of confirmed cases in Cebu after Barangay Luz, which has 138 cases of COVID-19.
Two female officers of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) in Central Visayas also acquired the respiratory disease and were put under home quarantine.
The local government conducted mass testing in the overcrowded city jail after a 41-year-old inmate died of the virus on April 19.
According to BJMP regional information officer Senior Insp. Jay Ylanan, the jail’s management already imposed lockdown and suspended visitations even before any of the detainees and jail staff, got infected.
The jail officials, however, were uncertain as to how the inmates and the two BJMP personnel acquired the coronavirus. The facility holds 6,582 inmates, but it was originally designed for just 1,800 inmates.
Also read: 18 inmates at Correctional Institution for Women infected with coronavirus
Barangay Luz in Cebu records 82 COVID-19 cases in one day
Barangay Luz in Cebu was immediately placed under “community lockdown” after it recorded 82 coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases on April 17.
“We have to contain [this],” Mayor Edgardo Labella said after placing Barangay Luz under lockdown after the COVID-19 cases Sitio Zapatera reached 135. Authorities considered Sitio Zapatera as the epicenter of the virus outbreak in the city.
During the lockdown, around 30,000 residents are prohibited from going out of the barangay. Its officials will distribute food packs and other essential goods to each household.
Those who were infected will be placed in isolation at a high school in Barangay Luz. Labella also ordered the separation of all 134 asymptomatic cases from Sitio Zapatera in the nearby Barrio Luz National High School.
The joint forces of police and military were deployed to ensure the residents of Barangay Luz would not violate the community lockdown.
Labella also said they would continue and expand the mass testing despite the city health department’s earlier statement that they would stop it. The Department of Health also said Friday that testing would continue at Sitio Zapatera.