Five prisoners confirmed with Covid-19 at Wheatfield Prison

Five prisoners at Wheatfield Prison have tested positive for Covid-19 along with an undisclosed number of staff.

This is the first time there has been a Covid-19 outbreak at the prison in west Dublin which accommodates 430 male prisoners.

The Irish Prison Service (IPS) confirmed last week that a number of staff had tested positive and that mass testing of the prison population would now take place.

As a result of the mass testing, five cases have been identified among prisoners.

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An Irish Prison Service spokesman said it does not comment on the number of staff who test positive, but he said the cases found in the prison population reflect the surge in the general population in recent days.

In the first wave of Covid-19, none of the 3,700 prisoners in the State’s jails contracted the virus, but by December that number had risen to 22 with cases confirmed in the Midlands and Mountjoy Prison.

The IPS has called for prisoners to be among the first to receive the vaccination.

All prisoners will now be tested and retested on day seven in order to provide a response to the current situation in Wheatfield Prison.

“This second stage of testing will support a more comphrensive result and assist in a more normal return to prison regimes,” the service said.

“This will support a return to a more normal prison regime as soon as possible.”

In a questionnaire released to prisoners’ relatives, the Irish Prison Service said people are being allowed out of their rooms for exercise and will have access to phone and video calls in lieu of physical visits for the foreseeable future.

They have also been given Netflix in their cells to keep them occupied.