Walewale: Three inmates test positive for COVID-19

Three persons in the custody of the Walewale district police command have tested positive for COVID-19.

The three were in a group of 10 being prepared for transfer to the Tamale prisons when a pre-departure COVID-19 test was conducted on them and the result confirmed the three as positive cases.

They have since been quarantined in new police cells.

The North East Regional Police Crime Officer, Superintendent Reuben Yao Dugah in a Citi News interview said the command will remain vigilant as the country experiences a surge in COVID-19 positive cases.

“Our new way of dealing with prisoners is that if you want to take prisoners from police custody to prison custody, you must necessarily take them through a mandatory COVID-19 test and so based on this, the Walewale district command made a request to the municipal health directorate to conduct COVID-19 tests of some inmates due to be taken to the Tamale prisons. Samples were taken from about 10 prisoners who are in police custody and submitted to the laboratory for testing.  Results came out indicating that three of them had tested positive. Immediately they have been isolated to a station where we have a free cell.”

Meanwhile, health personnel in the North East Region have commenced tracing contacts linked to the three inmates who tested positive.

“The health directorate has started contact tracing of persons that these inmates have interacted with including the officers who were handling them,” he said.