17 inmates test +ve at Mandoli Jail after prison's first COVID-19 death

NEW DELHI: As many as 17 inmates at the Mandoli Jail, most of them senior citizens, have now tested COVID-19 positive after coming in contact with another inmate who had died after contracting the contagious disease a few days ago. According to prison authorities, after the first Coronavirus death of a 64-year-old inmate in Mandoli Jail, they had conducted COVID-19 tests of 29 inmates of his contacts in the barracks in Jail number 14 where the deceased was lodged. "Their test result has come today which reveals that 17 inmates are positive and 12 are negative. 17 positive inmates have been shifted to a separate barrack in CJ-14 and their health is being closely monitored by the jail doctor. So far their health is alright," said Director General (prisons) Sandeep Goel adding that the 12 negative tested inmates are also separately quarantined. A senior official said that about 15 inmates (senior citizens) were affected by the virus. "Putting new inmates to rapid tests, we will be examining its feasibility in terms of the ICMR guidelines. As regards our own staff, this has already been started. In the last four days, a medical camp of Rapid Testing has been held in the Tihar Residential Colony and many jail staff got tested," an official said. On June 15, an inmate of the Mandoli Jail died in his sleep with no apparent cause of death. On Sunday, his report came back positive. He was convicted for a murder in 2016 and sentenced to life and was admitted to the jail in mid-2018. According to data, till June 22, as many 40 prison inmates have tested positive, of which 16 have recovered and one death has been reported; whereas 46 prison staff have been affected by the virus, of which 12 have recovered.

About precautions inside prisons, DG Tihar had earlier said, "We are restricting the movements of inmates only to their barracks so that if COVID-19 is reported, we can easily conduct contact tracing and immediately we provide treatment."