The number of prisoners with a positive test for covid-19 in the Valencian prison of Picassent It has risen to 133, or 90 more cases since the last update just over a week ago. As reported IIPP, the vast majority of positives are asymptomatic among a population of 1,910 inmates. Some cases present mild symptoms and there is no one admitted to the hospital. The number of inmates confined to cells, as indicated by the health protocol, is 473. As for the number of workers, 16 officials have a positive PCR and six are in isolation. It would be necessary to add another six belonging to the Center for Social Insertion. The number of employees in quarantine stands at 27.
The Picassent prison suspends communications, permits and only prison staff will be allowed to enter
Faced with this situation, the center, in coordination with the General Secretariat of Penitentiary Institutions, has arranged new measures against covid-19 that come into force today and will have an initial validity of two weeks.
Among them are suspend all communications, ordinary and special; as well as all the outputs permission, scheduled and any other exit, except for reasons of force majeure, situation of necessity, for essential legal or health reasons.
In addition, the productive workshops are suspended; Y Only official and labor personnel will be allowed access, and extra-prison staff whose work is essential.
To alleviate this restriction on communications and permits for people in prison, the number of authorized telephone calls for inmates will be increased, especially with their lawyers, and the use of video calls will be promoted.
The measures adopted are framed in ministerial order INT / 407/2020 of May 12, which established the possibility of reverting the return to normality in the area of Penitentiary Institutions if the epidemiological situation so advises.
In relation to the Alicante II Penitentiary Center (Villena), today there are 45 positive inmates, 28 new cases after an active search. All asymptomatic. The number of inmates confined to health on a preventive basis in cells is 140, and the number of officials who are on leave for being positive for covid amounts to seven.
The virus circulates “wildly”
From Acaip-Ugt they have regretted in a statement that the virus is currently circulating “uncontrollably” through the Picassent prison, since “practically all the modules have detected positive or confirmed cases, and the realization is still pending. testing many inmates. “
In his opinion, “no drastic and sharp measures were adopted when the first major outbreak was detected in early January and that is why this situation has now been reached,” he warned.
Furthermore, the union has criticized that now, with the new infections, the workers who have been in direct contact with the inmates of the module “are going to be trapped in an administrative limbo to see who performs diagnostic tests.” “It is outrageous that public workers have to literally look for their lives to see if they are infected or not by administrative competences, having to pay themselves in many cases the cost of diagnostic tests,” they have criticized.
In his opinion, it must be the management of the center which, taking advantage of the good relations with the Ministry of Health, manages the performance of diagnostic tests on all workers who are close labor contacts.
Acaip-Ugt had requested on January 8, after the first serious outbreak in the center, that all non-essential activity be limited in the center. Subsequently, last Sunday it was again influenced by the anticipation that something of this magnitude could happen. However, this decision has not been made until this morning. Thus, he regretted that the closure “comes too late.”
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