ZAMBOANGA CITY, Zamboanga del Sur – Twenty seven Zamboanga City Reformatory Center inmates and two Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) personnel tested positive for SARS – CoV- 2, the virus that causes the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
An inmate who was hospitalized died on April 20, 2020.
His was found positive for COVID-19 five days after he died in a government-run Zamboanga City hospital.
“The 29 cases that yielded positive for COVID-19 were part of the batch of specimen sent to St.Luke’s on April 27 and 30, based on an agreement entered into by the (Zamboanga) city government and St. Luke’s Medical Center through Brent Hospital,” Sheila Belen Covarrubias, city public information officer, said.
As of Friday, May 1, only 30 cases, 18 of them inmates and one a jail officer, were monitored in this city. The test results from St. Luke’s arrived on the evening of May 2.
Authorities are trying to address the spread of the viral illness in the congested facility that holds around 3,000 inmates.