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Eighteen guards and inmates in a crowded Philippine prison have tested positive for the coronavirus, officials said on Friday, raising fears of a rapid spread of the disease within the country’s jails.
Another 30 prisoners were showing symptoms inside the Quezon City Jail in Metro Manila, a facility so crowded that inmates take turns sleeping on the stairs and on the outdoor basketball courts.
The outbreak has fueled calls by rights groups for the early release of prisoners accused of non-violent crimes, as well as the sick and elderly, in an effort to ease congestion and reduce the risk of transmission.
The Philippines has an increasing number of confirmed coronavirus cases, with 5,878 infections and 387 deaths as of Friday.
Social distancing is almost impossible in the prison system, where cells sometimes operate at five times the capacity.
Overcrowding has become an even bigger problem since President Rodrigo Duterte launched a drug offensive in 2016 that has seen thousands sent to jails.
Nine inmates and nine prison staff tested positive for the virus, Xavier Solda, spokesman for the Office of Jail and Penology Management, told reporters.
The prisoners were isolated and staff told them to quarantine their homes, Solda said.
“We are still in the process of intensive contact searching,” he added.
The Philippine Supreme Court on Friday postponed a decision on whether to release the most vulnerable prisoners, and instead ordered the government to report on measures it had taken to contain the virus inside prisons.
“The release of prisoners and other measures to address severe congestion in our prisons is literally a matter of life and death,” the president of the Free Legal Assistance Group and a critic of Duterte, José Manuel Diokno, said on Friday.
Otherwise, the virus “will go crazy,” Diokno told AFP.
Human Rights Watch deputy director for Asia Phil Robertson said Manila must “act urgently to mitigate what could be a catastrophe within the country’s overcrowded prisons.”
