Malta: Corradino prison staff start week-long shifts to reduce Covid-19 risks

Corradino Correctional Facility staff have begun working in week-long shifts as increasingly tight anti-coronavirus measures are adopted to avoid an outbreak of the disease in the prison.

Over 60 correctional officers moved in at the facility this morning, residing in specially-constructed dormitories.

Prison officials will deploy into two shifts, operating for one week at a time, each. This is intended to reduce the amount of movement in and out of the prison, which has become a veritable fortress against the virus.

The measures are part of an ongoing ramping-up of preventive measures against the pandemic, implemented by Prison Director Col. Alexander Dalli.

The prison is taking the risks of an internal outbreak of COVID-19 very seriously. Preparations began last month when it was reported that new arrivals were being kept separate from the rest for two weeks before being cleared to join the general prison population.

The facility is being constantly scrubbed down by staff and inmates - going on to daily temperature roll call, makeshift clinics, enlarged staff dormitories and even the provision of HAZMAT suits for the eventuality of infection breaching the prison’s defences

Inmates at CCF have been issued face masks which they have been ordered to wear at all times

With regards to the week-long shift arrangement, internal sources said that the prison staff will continue to work this way until the pandemic ends.