Prison of­fi­cers sta­tioned at all pris­ons through­out Trinidad and To­ba­go are be­ing urged to ob­serve pre­cau­tion­ary mea­sures while on du­ty and to be vig­i­lant and re­port any­one who may be dis­play­ing flu-like symp­toms.

This was sent out in an up­date to staff on Wednes­day by the Com­mis­sion­er’s of­fice as 256 in­mates were con­firmed to have test­ed pos­i­tive for COVID-19.

Act­ing Com­mis­sion­er of Pris­ons Den­nis Pul­chan de­scribed the sit­u­a­tion as “sort of set­tling down” af­ter a draft­ed strat­e­gy was im­ple­ment­ed as to how in­mates with COVID are to be treat­ed and housed for their re­spec­tive 14-day quar­an­tine while still in the prison sys­tem. This as the fa­cil­i­ty that was des­ig­nat­ed for them filled up due to the in­creas­ing num­bers.

Pul­chan has been hav­ing reg­u­lar meet­ings with med­ical of­fi­cials since the virus pen­e­trat­ed the prison sys­tem. 

Pul­chan, who did not want to dis­close much de­tails of the strat­e­gy as­sured that “every­thing pos­si­ble will be done for the well be­ing of in­mates.”