The Nairobi County Emergency Response Team has evacuated 31 prisoners from the Nairobi Remand and Allocation Prison after they tested positive for COVID-19.

The inmates, who had been admitted to the facility from various courts, were on Sunday admitted to various treatment centres.

Kenya Prison Service Commissioner General, Wycliffee Ogallo in a statement said that the individuals had just completed 21 days of quarantine when they tested positive for the disease.

59 SAMPLES

“As part of the ongoing mass testing, 59 samples were collected from remandees and prisoners on May 28. From the results received on May 30, 31 samples had tested positive for coronavirus after which the Nairobi County emergency response team promptly moved in and evacuated the patients to various treatment centres for case management,” explained Mr Ogallo.

The prison's boss said the service has put in place appropriate preventative measures against the spread of the disease within its 129 facilities spread across the country.

VISITS SUSPENDED

“The suspension of all visits to our prison stations, Borstal institutions and youth corrective training centres have also proved effective in mitigating the spread of the virus to the prison population."

“We are progressively reviewing our precautionary measures based on the current outbreak dynamics of the pandemic in the country,” said Mr Ogallo.

He said the service is open to adapting and deploying more radical approaches to prevent the spread of the virus within the correctional facilities.

So far, 11,000 petty offenders and convicts who had already served the entirety of their collective jail terms have been released.