Four cellmates of a 32-year-old inmate with Covid-19 have tested negative and will be tested again, said the Singapore Prison Service (SPS) yesterday.
They were immediately transferred to separate, isolated cells after the inmate tested positive for the virus, the SPS said.
Meanwhile, 1,050 inmates, staff and partners who had been to an area of Changi Prison Complex have been tested for Covid-19 after the 32-year-old was found to have the virus on Saturday. More than 900 of them are inmates.
The SPS said yesterday that it has completed mass polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing of the inmates, staff and partners, who had been to Institution A5 between last Monday and Wednesday.
Changi Prison Complex consists of two clusters - Cluster A and Cluster B - which contain five institutions each.
No positive cases have been detected so far, but activities in Institution A5 have been suspended as a precautionary measure.
These include family visits, counselling sessions, rehabilitation programmes involving vendors and volunteers, and non-critical hospital appointments.
All affected areas have been thoroughly cleaned and disinfected.
The SPS will test all inmates, staff and partners from Cluster A progressively over the next few days to identify and isolate any asymptomatic cases.
About 5,000 inmates, staff and partners will be tested in total.
The SPS said the infected inmate worked in the prison kitchen at Institution A5 in Cluster A.
He is a close contact of a Sats Food Services worker who was working at the prison kitchen and tested positive for the virus last Thursday.
The inmate, who supports the day-to-day preparation of meals, was administered a PCR test on the same day that he was traced as the chef's potential close contact.
His test result returned positive the next day and he was transferred to the quarantine centre at Selarang Park Complex, where he is being monitored by medical staff. He is currently well and asymptomatic, said the SPS.
All newly admitted inmates in SPS prisons were subjected to a 14-day cohort segregation and tested for Covid-19 upon admission.
Since May 8, the period of cohort segregation has been increased to 21 days, given the rising number of community cases.
The inmates, who are also tested on the 14th and 20th day of the cohort segregation, will be allowed to join the general inmate population after they test negative at the end of the period.
The SPS will also cease face-to-face visits and tele-visits, and replace all inmates' visits with phone calls from today, until further notice. These visits do not take place on Sundays.
Families who have already booked their visits will have them automatically converted to phone calls, and the SPS will contact them to set these up. Inmates can also communicate with their families through e-letters.
The SPS has also suspended rehabilitation programmes conducted by vendors and volunteers in all prison facilities.
"These are important, preventive steps taken by SPS for the safety of our inmates and their families, as well as staff and partners, to complement existing measures that have been in place since the onset of Covid-19," it said.
About 96 per cent of medically eligible SPS staff have been fully vaccinated.
A vaccination exercise for medically eligible inmates is ongoing and about 35 per cent of the inmate population have received at least their first dose of vaccine.
