An­na-Lisa Paul

Prison of­fi­cials have in­creased COVID-19 screen­ing mea­sures at the Port-of-Spain State Prison af­ter a con­demned pris­on­er was di­ag­nosed with the Delta vari­ant on Tues­day.

Con­firm­ing this yes­ter­day, Prison Com­mis­sion­er Den­nis Pul­chan said, “It is a con­demned pris­on­er who is sen­tenced to hang.”

De­clin­ing to dis­close the pris­on­er’s age, he as­sured, “He is to­tal­ly iso­lat­ed and all pro­to­cols are in place to pre­vent the spread of the virus in the prison at this time.”

Cur­rent­ly un­der the care of the prison’s med­ical doc­tors, Pul­chan said treat­ment and fur­ther test­ing is be­ing done in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Min­istry of Health.

Ap­prox­i­mate­ly 15 sam­ples which were tak­en from prison of­fi­cers and oth­er in­mates who in­ter­act­ed with the pris­on­er, were sub­mit­ted for test­ing at the Caribbean Pub­lic Health Agency (CARPHA).

Pressed to say how the con­demned man could have be­come in­fect­ed as pub­lic vis­its for these pris­on­ers had been sus­pend­ed, Pul­chan said, “There is a very good chance that of­fi­cers who may have been work­ing or even an in­mate may have had it and came to the Con­demned Di­vi­sion, so there are many pos­si­bil­i­ties how this could have come across, it is ei­ther by an of­fi­cer or an in­mate. I can­not ze­ro in to be ab­solute­ly sure.”

In­di­cat­ing the 15 per­sons have been iso­lat­ed, he said the of­fi­cers are not at work whilst the in­mates who would have trans­port­ed food to the Con­demned Di­vi­sion for the in­mates housed there, have al­so been iso­lat­ed at this time in a cer­tain part of the prison.

Claim­ing things are un­der con­trol at this time, Pul­chan added, “We are con­cerned the vari­ant has found its way in­to the prison and be­cause we are not ex­act­ly sure how, we have stepped our san­i­ti­za­tion ef­forts and screen­ing mea­sures.”

“We are more in­sis­tent that of­fi­cers wear their masks and we are be­ing ex­tra vig­i­lant be­cause the prison is a vul­ner­a­ble place and we have to be care­ful be­cause we are in charge of lives so we have to make sure every­one is pro­tect­ed as far as pos­si­ble.”

Pul­chan re­mind­ed per­sons that of­fi­cers are mem­bers of the pub­lic who af­ter com­plet­ing their shift at work – re­turn home to their fam­i­lies, vis­it gro­ceries and phar­ma­cies and oth­er places like every­one else.

“There is the pos­si­bil­i­ty that trans­mis­sion could hap­pen,” he said.

In­di­cat­ing the min­istry had pro­vid­ed COVID-19 vac­cines for all of­fi­cers and all in­mates, Pul­chan said vac­cine hes­i­tan­cy con­tin­ued to be a ma­jor stum­bling block in the process.

“On­ly 20 per cent of the prison pop­u­la­tion has been vac­ci­nat­ed, and in of­fi­cers, it is about 30 per cent that have so far been vac­ci­nat­ed,” he said.