MANILA, Philippines — The Bureau of Corrections on Tuesday said it is suspending visitation privileges in all its prison facilities across the country as the new coronavirus spreads locally.
The visitation privileges for inmates will be suspended in New Bilibid Prison and the bureau’s operating prison and penal farms for one week starting March 11 as part of the "safety protocols in ensuring the welfare of its stakeholders."
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The bureau's facilities include:
- New Bilibid Prison
- Correctional Institute for Women
Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm
- Davao Prison and Penal Farm
San Ramos Prison and Penal Farm
- Sablayan Prison and Penal Farm
- Leyte Regional Prison
The move comes after President
Rodrigo Duterge declared a state of public emergency throughout the Philippines as the country grapples with another health crisis.
The Philippines has so far recorded 24 cases since late January—half of them diagnosed on Monday.
Out of the 24 confirmed infections, two have recovered, while 21 are still being treated in hospitals. The Philippines reported one death in February—a tourist from
Chinese city of Wuhan, where the virus first emerged late last year.
Inmates in the Philippines are packed into small, overcrowded spaces, which put them at heightened risk of being infected with the virus.
As of January 2020, there were 49,114 inmates in
BuCor-manned prisons across the country.
Prison riots broke out in Italy, the hardest-hit country in Europe, after the government placed the whole peninsula on lockdown to combat the spread of the new coronavirus.
The virus has spread to over 100 countries and territories with
more than 110,000 cases of infection. The death toll reached 4,011 on Tuesday.