Belize Central Prison Extends Lockdown for Two More Weeks!

And how does the prison plan to contain the spread? Murillo says that they have implemented an additional fourteen day quarantine which kicked in on Tuesday of this week. So, prison visits and access to the facility are not possible at this time. He notes that those who are positive have been isolated in one area and that new admissions to the prison are also placed on quarantine to in separate quarters. Murillo explains how they are dealing with the situation under a lockdown – and why he is asking for cooperation from attorneys and families of inmates.

Virgilio Murillo

Virgilio Murillo, C.E.O., Kolbe Foundation

“We have quarantined the prison for a further fourteen days since the twenty-seventh because if we don’t do that then we run the risk of having it spread to the entire population. So, I am taking this opportunity to appeal to attorneys, particularly, because I don’t have an issue with the judiciary nor the magistracy, as they are working closely with us in trying not to hear cases right now for bails and those kinds of things until this thing is all over and in this case when they don’t do it in person, they do it through the video to port link which is a big plus for us too. I ask attorneys in particular though because they are concerned in getting their clients out but at this time it is not the appropriate time to be fighting for these kinds of things. They should at least wait for the fourteen days to pass to let us see what the re-testing reveals.  Even if the staff has to interact with them because we need to feed them and give them their water and other basic necessities, the staff will put on PPEs and that is how we are dealing with them right now. Our staff has to be very careful that they don’t contract it themselves. Like I said, they have tested a one hundred and five staff and only six came out positive.  That tells you we are trying to do everything possible to make sure the staff is protected because we don’t want them catch it because if they do, it literally means they won’t be able to come to work and the prison won’t have manpower to guard and secure. So, that is what we are doing. They are on total quarantine.”