Amuru prison closed as 153 test positive for Covid-19

Amuru Prison in Amuru town Council, Amuru District has been shut down after 153 inmates tested positive to Covid-19.
On Saturday, the Ministry of Health revealed that the biggest number of new Covid-19 cases were recorded in Amuru prison, where 153 out of 205 inmates tested positive for the virus.
One prison staff also staff tested positive to Covid-19.
Covid-19 district task force chairperson who is also the Resident District Commissioner (RDC), Osborn Geoffrey Oceng, said all inmates at Amuru prison have been evacuated to Gulu Main Prison for treatment and quarantine, while the prison staff together with their families have been placed are under self-isolation from their respective homes.
“We agreed to shut down the prison for a period of 28 days to allow us spray the entire facility so that it can be used again,” Mr Oceng said.
According to District Health Officer (DHO), Dr Patrick Odong Olwedo, inmates who tested positive for the virus have already started undergoing treatment while their contacts shall be regularly tested and monitored during their fourteen days in mandatory quarantine.
“We believe someone positive could have entered the facility,’’ he said.
LCV Chairperson Mr Michael Lakony, said a joint surveillance team from the Ministry of Health and Infectious Disease Institute have been dispatched in Amuru town council to carryout risk assessment and contact tracing.
“Health officials are already on the ground, there is no cause for alarm since the positive cases were confirmed in a confined place”, Mr Lakony said.
He said the district Covid-19 task force would hold an emergency meeting on Monday to ascertain how the infection found its way into the government prison despite all the health measures that were put in place by the prisons authority.
On Friday, authorities in the district requested Ministry of Health to carryout Covid-19 tests for all the inmates and prison staff at the facility following a tip off that one of persons on remand was a contact of a person who tested positive for Covid-19 at Elegu town in Amuru district.
Early this month, locals in Pece Division, Gulu City abandoned their homes after two inmates at Pece Prison tested positive cases of Covid 19.
Prison PRO Frank Baine, could not be reached for a comment as his known mobile telephone number was off by the time of compiling this report.