The Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) announced Thursday that one prisoner at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa tested positive for coronavirus disease (COVID-19), its first case at the national penitentiary.
According to BuCor, the male prisoner at the NBP medium security camp was checked at the NBP Hospital on April 17 and was admitted to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) on the same day.
A COVID-19 test performed on him turned out positive and the patient is still confined at RITM.
Contact tracing was done on April 17 and, as a result, 40 prisoners were put in isolation areas on April 18.
They were transferred to the isolation area in NBP medium security camp, which currently houses the 18 female prisoners from the Correctional Institution for Women (CIW) in Mandaluyong who tested positive for the disease.
Medical staff who attended the prisoner are now considered suspect and are under quarantine. (Jonathan Hicap)