15 prisoners, a warder at Rohini jail test positive for coronavirus
nNEWDELHI:FIFTEEN prisoners and a jail warder of Rohini jail have tested positive for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) on Saturday. Jail officials said all 16 are asymptomatic and have been sent into quarantine.
A high alert has also been sounded in Tihar jail, where around 15,000 are lodged in different sub-jails. Rohini currently has 1,370 prisoners.
Director general (prisons) Sandeep Goel said a 29-year-old prisoner was admitted to the Deen Dayal Upadhyay hospital last Sunday for a surgery. He tested positive for the virus on Wednesday. The department then conducted tests on 19 prisoners and five officials, who had come in contact with the first prisoner. “Their test results came on Saturday and 15 of 19 prisoners tested positive for Covid-19. Of the five jail officials, one tested positive, while the others are negative for the infection. The inmates who have tested positive have been separated from the others. They are being kept in the isolation quarantine barracks. The head warder has been sent to home quarantine. A few other jail staff have also been sent to home quarantine,” Goel said.
All 16 prisoners who have tested positive till date have been lodged in Rohini jail for more than two months. With families of prisoners barred from visiting inmates and court hearings currently being held inside the prison over video conferencing, jail officials suspect that the virus may have been spread by an asymptomatic jail official.
“At the Tihar complex, all new prisoners are kept in isolation for 14 days in jail number 2, before they are shifted to other jails. We are taking all steps to prevent the spread of the Covid-19. In Rohini, none of the prisoners is new. New prisoners are only sent to isolation wards at Tihar’s sub-jail 2 for 14 days. All prisoners in Rohini’s jail 2 were lodged there before the lockdown started. We have used the jail’s hospital to quarantine them. Contact tracing is on,” said a senior prison official, on the condition of anonymity.