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Security Minister Thought They Were Going Into Quarantine
posted (May 5, 2020)
Today, we caught up with the Attorney General and Minister of National Security, Mike Peyrefitte to ask about what went wrong in this case.

He says Cabinet did discuss it today - and the understanding was that they would be quarantined:

Hon. Michael Peyrefitte - Attorney General
"In cabinet this morning we discussed the matter and we all agree that in deed these people would be quarantine under the Ministry of Health, so like I said I would need to speak to the different section before I am fully appraised. I just came from a funeral in Calcutta, but I thought it was clear that the intention was to have these people in quarantine or in a secluded area to be tested before they can be taken to the prison if they pleaded guilty this morning in the court. Because if a person is to go to jail, they just don't go to jail, they have to go to quarantine first. They have to be cleared by the health officials before they can be taken to the prison, because you don't want to contaminate the people at the prison. So I am surprised that you tell me that they are already in prison at the moment. I did not know that, but I will have to do some investigations to determine maybe they have some facility up at the prison where they can isolate them and deal with them in that manner."

And CEO of the prison Virgilio Murillo says that while the Aguilar's are at Kolbe foundation they are not in quarantine per se, but what he termed as, quote, "complete isolation."

According to Murrillo, this has been done in accordance with the prison's rigid safeguards against COVID-19. The couple has been put through multiple screening process and are cleared of any symptoms by all screenings. Nevertheless, they remain isolated because - due to their travel history - they could be asymptomatic carriers.

As for the woman caught crossing at Patchakan on April 30th. She is undergoing MOH supervised quarantine at a northern hospital. She was caught coming across the day before the new law went into effect.

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