By Dhel NazarioÂ
The number of COVID-19 cases among the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) inmates and personnel has risen to 301, a Department of Justice official disclosed on Thursday.
Justice Undersecretary Markk Perete, citing reports from the Bureau of Corrections, said that the National Bilibid Prisons accounts for the most number of confirmed cases with 141 Persons Deprived of Liberty (PDLs) and 38 of its staff.
He said that the rest of confirmed cases come from the Correctional Institute for Women (CIW), where 82 PDLs and seven personnel have been reported to have been infected.
In the National Headquarters, 33 personnel are confirmed to be COVID-19 positive. The rest of the penal farms and colonies administered by BuCor reported no cases of COVID-19.
Perete said that there were 145 who recovered while 16 COVID19-related PDL deaths were reported.
He added that BuCor continues its testing and contact-tracing efforts to prevent further infections and is now waiting for the arrival of 5,000 rapid test kits from the GoJust Programme while at the same time augments its medical and health personnel in the affected sites.
Meanwhile, a new batch of infected inmates from the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City have recovered from COVID-19, the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) said.
In its report on Wednesday night, 61 more PDLs from Site Harry, the NBP's isolation area of COVID-19 patients in the medium security compound were discharged after two weeks.
The bureau said that they tested negative twice from the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests.
Of the 61 who recovered, one is from the Medium Security Camp, five is from the Building 14, 13 from the NBP-Reception and Diagnostic Center (RDC) and 42 from the Maximum Security Camp.