728 cases in 8 days

LUCKNOW: With 728 inmates and staff testing positive in the past eight days, the Covid-19 infection tally in UP jails reached 867 on Wednesday, said officials.

There was a sudden spike in cases after 228 inmates and staff of Ballia jail and 210 inmates and staff of Jhansi jail tested corona positive in the last few days. Similarly, 253 inmates tested positive in different regular and temporary jails set up during pandemic outbreak, said officials.

Santosh Kumar, spokesperson for prison headquarters in Lucknow, said efforts were on to curb the spread of infection among inmates by intensifying screening and carrying out sanitisation drives in jails to disinfect barracks as well as other common areas.

Since March 27, 867 inmates and jail staff across the state had tested corona positive, said Kumar. “Of these, 697 cases were reported from permanent jails while 170 were reported from 69 temporary jails set up in 52 districts to keep new prisoners for 14-day quarantine before shifting them to permanent jails,” he said. Kumar said most of the inmates were asymptomatic and that they were kept in separate barracks while 120 inmates of permanent jails and 122 inmates of temporary jails were admitted to L-1 grade hospitals.

A total of 1,02,055 inmates were lodged in 72 regular jails and 3,992 were lodged in 69 temporary jails, he added.

On May 17, the state government had ordered to lodge new prisoners in temporary jails under 14-day quarantine before sending them to 72 regular prisons across UP after testing them for Sars-CoV-2 infection.

Besides, over 13,000 jail inmates were also released on parole and bail in April to decongest jails, fearing spread of infection among them.