ZAMBOANGA CITY—A jail officer and 18 inmates at the Zamboanga City Reformatory Center has tested positive for coronavirus that causes COVID-19, authorities said.
City information officer Sheila Belen Covarrubias said the latest cases brought to 30 the total number of persons in the city who are infected with COVID-19, two of whom had died already.
The inmates infected with COVID-19 have already been separated from the rest of the detainees, said Dr. Dulce Miravite, city health officer.
After an inmate at the city jail tested positive for COVID-19 last month, some 119 persons in the facility were swabbed and the samples sent to Saint Luke’s Medical Center for testing.
Prior to the recent test results, two jail inmates have contracted the coronavirus, one of whom had died.
Hence, of the current 30 COVID-19 cases in the city, 20 are jail inmates.
Miravite feared many more are infected in the facility which are crammed with inmates.