Vaccination drive for nearly 12,000 under-45 prisoners begins in Tihar
NEW DELHI: The west Delhi district on Tuesday started vaccinating Tihar jail inmates in the 18-44 age group and, according to district officials, around 100 inmates were goven doses on the first day of the drive. The officials said there are around 11,000-12,000 inmates in this age group at Tihar.
The west Delhi district has set up an outreach site in Tihar jail for the vaccination drive.
The move comes after director general (prisons) Sandeep Goel wrote to the state government, requesting it to start vaccinating inmates in the age group of 18 to 44.
Ishaan Sharma, officer on special duty (vaccination), west Delhi district, said, “As a special case, we have started vaccinating inmates in the 18-44 age group in Tihar. We have deputed a team for this purpose. There are around 11,000-12,000 inmates who are in this category. The district administration decided to vaccinate them on priority as they could become a superspreader group, given the close proximity in which live inside the prison.”
According to west Delhi district officials, inmates are allowed to register on the spot at the vaccination site. Sharma said, “As a special case, we have taken permission from the state government for on-site registration for inmates. These people don’t have access to the Cowin portal. So, they can just walk in and get registered for a shot. We have set a daily vaccination target of 200 at this site.”
West Delhi is the first district to set up an outreach vaccination site for the 18-44 age group. Vaccinations for this category started on May 1.
The government recently started vaccinating all inmates who are aged 45 and above at the three jails of Tihar, Mandoli and Rohini.
Until Tuesday, 1, 472 inmates in three jail complexes –1,089 (including 49 who received second shot of the vaccine) in Tihar, 112 in Rohini and 271 in Mandoli — were given at least one dose.
An official from Shahdara district -- the Mandoli prison falls under it -- said on condition of anonymity, “We are currently vaccinating people in the 45+ category. So far, no decision has been taken on vaccinating inmates in the 18-44 age group.”
Over the past week, at least 1,700 inmates from the three prisons, both convicts and under trials, have been released on interim bail or emergency parole for 90 days in an effort to decongest the jails. They will have to surrender after 90 days in case their parole or interim bail is not extended.
Until last month, the three prisons collectively had 20,500 prisoners while the sanctioned capacity is 10,026.
“The cases are under control now. We have around 79 positive cases among inmates. Last month, when Delhi was reporting a positivity rate of over 30 , we had around 290 positive cases. Now with a few prisoners released, and more waiting to be released, the situation is much better,” said a prison officer.
The three jail complexes, which currently house around 18,000 prisoners, have reported six deaths due to Covid-19 in the past two months.