COTABATO CITY (PNA) – Two guards of the Cotabato City Jail have tested positive for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) while more than 80 inmates are being monitored by health authorities for possible infection.
To date, the jail facility has more than 150 inmates.
“The two guards are asymptomatic and are now isolated after their swab tests showed they were positive of the virus," Dr. Meyasser Patadon, city health officer, said on Saturday.
This prompted jail officials and the city government to lock down the jail facility on Raja Tabunaway Boulevard.
Visits were also suspended while disinfection is ongoing.
The two jail officers could not say how the guards contracted the virus.
Patadon said health frontliners have been deployed in the jail facility to attend to the inmates as some have shown symptoms of COVID-19 like fever, cough, and sore throat.