NATIONAL Security Minister Wayne Munroe, QC, said yesterday that officials are investigating another suspected COVID-19 case at the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services.

Mr Munroe said the suspected case is a prisoner who was quarantined in a cell with Prescott Smith, an inmate who reportedly also tested positive for COVID-19.

Two other prisoners were also reportedly confined in the cell with Mr Smith despite his positive status, prompting the decision to send the Corrections Commissioner Charles Murphy on administrative leave last week.

Yesterday, Mr Munroe said: “I am told that there was one case. We are now waiting (on) the PCR test of one of the inmates who was confined with Prescott Smith who appeared symptomatic when we toured. We’re awaiting that test.”

Mr Munroe spoke to reporters after touring facilities at the Royal Bahamas Police Force headquarters, including the RBPF’s real crime time centre, forensic lab and Paul Farquharson Conference Centre.

He also visited the Royal Bahamas Defence Force Coral Harbour Base to tour facilities there.

Yesterday, Mr Munroe pledged to advocate for additional crime resources, technological improvements and other critical upgrades needed to assist both agencies in their policing efforts.

He also committed to full implementation of the MARCO Alert and a sexual offenders registry once all issues of concern have been addressed.

“I don’t intend to come here to tell people how to do their jobs,” Mr Munroe said. “My job is to listen to the professionals and listen to what they say and their resource needs and then my job as an advocate, and I have a lot of training in that over the last 31 years, I’m to advocate for what the forces need to do their job properly.

“We have a very simple mantra that I have sought to bring to the ministry. We recruit the best, we end up with the best and we have to give the best their resources that they need.”

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