COVID has reached within the walls of the Belize Central Prison - as 5 guards have tested positive.
So far, no inmates have been tested - and that begins on Monday. But, for the time being, the prison has what would appear to be a fairly serious problem.
And while that's what it may seem like, I spoke to the CEO Virgilio Murillo a short time ago and he told us why he's not worried:
Virgilio Murillo, CEO, KOLBE Foundation
"This thing all started with one of our guards who came off shift on the 15th September. When he went home sometime around the 20th and 21st, he began experiencing symptoms of Covid-19, so he went and he got swabbed on the 22nd September and he just got the results on the 28th and they informed him that he was tested positive. We began doing our own contact tracing and we found out which all guards had made contact with him. We tested 30 of them and out of the 30, 4 came back positive for Covid-19."
Reporter
"How exposed are the inmates to these particular guards?"
Virgilio Murillo, CEO, KOLBE Foundation
"I would not say that they are so much exposed right now. This particular guard that interacted with them, the other 4 that we just found out are obviously asymptomatic. They do have to supervise them and inevitably like I've always said in a prison its social distance, but one thing we have emphasized with all out staff is that they must wear their mask at all times and wear it properly, not only just wear it but wear it properly covering both their nose and their mouth, so I believe that should mitigate the spread somewhat."
Reporter
'Will these positive guards prompt you to test any inmates?"
Virgilio Murillo, CEO, KOLBE Foundation
"Yes, definitely. We are planning continuing the contact tracing on Monday and this time we will do some prisoners as well. But personally I don't see much need to be alarm just now."
Reporter
"So you dont have any serious worries now for to think that the entire population of the prison might be compromised?"
Virgilio Murillo, CEO, KOLBE Foundation
"Absolutely not. Not at this stage. Like I said we will push on with the contact tracing on Monday. We will include some prisoners this time around. It's not like the guy was all over the prison, he just worked at 2 specific buildings which I will not disclose and we will go after those buildings and do our contact tracing there."
Reporter
"As you say your guards they come on and off shifts and when they are off shifts they are resting in the larger population, how will you continue to mitigate the spread within the prison when these men keep coming out into the world?"
Virgilio Murillo, CEO, KOLBE Foundation
"I know and that is the difficult thing. These guys brought these cases with them from their respective community. One of them is all the way from Punta Gorda, the other one is all the way from Corozal, one is from San Ignacio and the other one is somewhere in Orange Walk thereabouts."
We'll follow up next week with that inmate contact tracing.
