By Chito Chavez The Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) has confirmed on April 17, Friday, that nine persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) and nine of its personnel tested positive for coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (MANILA BULLETIN) BJMP spokesman, Jail Chief Inspector Xavier Solda, initially issued the statement during a virtual press briefing on April 16. Solda said that contact tracing is underway, to determine individuals who have had direct contact with the 18 COVID-19-positive persons. “We are doing extensive contact tracing. We have a team assigned to it,” he said. The BJMP is coordinating with the Philippine Red Cross for the medical treatment of the COVID-19 infected individuals and the establishment of quarantine facilities. Some 40 jail personnel were also tested to determine if they contracted the virus. Solda said the BJMP received information on April 3 that a former PDL detained at the Quezon City Jail male dormitory died due to myocardial infarction, which is a type of heart ailment, and his antecedent cause of death was hypertension. Since the ex-detainee was suspected to have died from COVID-19-related causes, Solda said the BJMP-NCR immediately conducted contact tracing at the Quezon City Jail. Solda noted that the BJMP immediately met with representatives of the International Committee on the Red Cross (ICRC) to assist them in putting up quarantine facilities. “The following day, we started the groundwork, and within 48 hours, the BJMP, ICRC, and PRC, was able to establish an emergency medical facility outside the Quezon City Jail as a new isolation facility,” Solda said. He noted that the “ICRC trained our personnel who will be deployed in that facility for proper knowledge of handling and managing infectious diseases.” “We wanted to make sure that our personnel ready and protected before we allow PDLs to be transferred to that isolation facility,” he noted. Solda in his April 13 report said the BJMP had “isolated some PDL to our new facility” where “they were swabbed and nine of them were found positive.” Since the BJMP has already been observing reverse isolation for PDLs manifesting COVID19-like symptoms, Solda said they now know where to focus their attention. He assured that the BJMP will continue to test concerned PDLs, with the help of the “local Health department of Quezon city and the Department of Health (DOH).” BJMP Jail Director Allan Iral has also ordered the continuous conduct of extensive contact tracing “to detect from among our PDLs who are possible carriers and isolate them our quarantine facility, where they will be treated—except those with severe symptoms, which better managed in a hospital.” “In fact, we already expanded the conduct of Telemedicine, a technology-supported medical consultation, and we will continue to implement telepsychology to help address the stress, tensions, and other mental health concerns of our PDLs and personnel in the said facility,” Solda said. On Friday, Solda noted that the DOH-NCR visited the Quezon City Jail male dormitory to attend to the PDLs while the facility was being disinfected. New BJMP personnel have been dispatched to man the Quezon City Jail, he added.