First, two prison guards were tested positive for covid-19. Then an employee of a service provider. Three cases that pushed the administration to carry out some 300 screening tests last week, which revealed the contamination of an inmate of the prison center of Avignon-Le Pontet, said this Monday France Bleu Vaucluse.
It did not take less for the union Force Ouvrière to be alarmed by the situation. "The Avignon-le Pontet prison center has become a cluster," says the union, which is very worried about the situation.
80 detainees tested from Tuesday
And the new screening campaign, which should start on Tuesday, is far from reassuring union representatives. The center has 250 agents and 650 detainees are incarcerated there. It is currently planned that 80 detainees will be retested, those who may have been in contact with the one who was last detected.
France Bleu specifies that while awaiting this new campaign, all have been isolated with very limited possibilities of movement during the walk. They were fitted with masks. "Between the start of the staff screening and the placement of the positive inmate in isolation, more than five days passed," worries local radio Jessy Zagari, regional representative of the penitentiary FO. For him, it is clear that "this detainee was in contact with many more people than the 80 detainees identified". The union therefore requests that all staff and all inmates be tested.