Second East London prison official tests positive for Covid-19

A laboratory worker handles a Covid-19 test sample.
A laboratory worker handles a Covid-19 test sample.
Image: KARIM SAHIB

A second female official from the East London Correctional Centre in Westbank has tested positive for Covid-19; while others are still awaiting their test results, according to a statement released on Thursday evening by the department of correctional services.

On Monday, the department announced that the first official had tested positive and that the National Institute for Communicable Disease (NICD) would start mass screening and testing at the East London facility on Wednesday.

Correctional services spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo said that 73 officials have been tested by the NICD, including 32 officials who were asked to self-isolate as they had come into contact with the first positive case, and are awaiting results.

The female official who tested positive had already received her results as she had been tested at a private laboratory earlier in the week.

To date, thirty-one inmates have also been tested.


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