The Freetown Male Correctional Centre has recorded nine new confirmed cases of COVID-19, to bring the cumulative positive infections at the prison to 28, according to trusted sources at the facility housing the infected inmates.
Fourteen inmates have so far recovered, with no death.
The nine inmates who tested positive for COVID-19 were among the 163 who came in contact with case 90 at the Male Correctional Centre on Pademba Road. The inmates were placed in quarantine at the Reintegration Centre.
The 14 inmates are being cared for at a newly built hospital at the Reintegration Centre.
Four doctors have been assigned to care for them. It has been suggested by the healthcare providers that all inmates who came in contact with case 90 should be tested for COVID-19, but this is yet to be acted on by the National COVID-19 Emergency Response Centre (NACOVERC).
Case 90 was received from the East End Police Station on April 17, 2020, and he attended a Court sitting on the same day at Court No. 6 before a Magistrate and was received at the Remand Centre at the Pademba Road Correctional Centre.
He reported sick on April 20, 2020 and was subsequently admitted at the Male Correctional Centre Hospital. During his admission, he confessed that he had escaped from a quarantine centre at Cow Yard, Guard Street, Freetown.
The inmate was then moved to the 34 Military Hospital, and later to Connaught Hospital on Friday April 14, 2020. On Sunday April 26, he was confirmed positive of the virus.
According to the authorities at the Correctional Service, the Male Correctional Centre Hospital had been fumigated, and inmates who came in contact with the notorious case 90 had been isolated.
They said some correctional service officers who came in contact with case 90 also went on self-isolation, and tested negative after completing the mandatory isolation period.
The Pademba Road Male Correctional Centre which was built for 324 inmates, now houses over 1,000 prisoners.
On the case load front, Sierra Leone has recorded seven new cases as of close of day, June 15. The total confirmed cases stood at 1,176 out of which 683 had recovered, and had been discharged from treatment centres. The death toll was at 51, with 442 active cases at isolation centres.
By Sallieu Kanu
16/16/2020. ISSUE NO.: 7846