Nagpur:- One male prisoner, two female guards and four members of the Nagpur central prison staff screened Covid-19 on Saturday as positive. The total grew to 106 in five days.
According to the records of Nagpur Municipal Corporation, cases connected to the prison are the fastest of the first 100. This took Mominpura, Satranjipura, and Naik Talao Bangladesh the ones with more than 100 cases more days.
The civic body is vigorously monitoring communications and quarantining prison quarters residents in Ajni. The field also remains to be barricaded into a containment zone.
State minister Anil Deshmukh and additional DG (prison) Sunil Ramanand were at the Central Jail on Saturday, with the jail under the jurisdiction of the home ministry. Deshmukh said ‘Covid distancing’ has been maintained in the prison which has 1,750 inmates against 1,800 capacities.
43 inmates, seven prisoners, 47 guards, eight staff family members and one prison woman doctor screened positively until this report was submitted since the first case came to the fore on June 30. While a day ago 48 people were taken to the institutional quarantine centre, on Saturday 13 were sent out.
It is reliably known that the ‘super spreader’ may have been the first prison guard who tested positive. His son came back from Mumbai, and was with him at home. This guard later went into jail with 103 others for a 15-day lockout period. He reported symptoms on the 14th day, and subsequently tested positive with his wife.
Around 20 positive inmates were transferred to the government medical college and hospital (GMCH) on Saturday, and another 21 were transferred to the Indira Gandhi government medical college and hospital (IGGMCH). Around 17 asymptomatic patients were sent back to prison for treatment at their respective barracks in accordance with the new guidelines of the Government.
The prisoners have called for proper care through a hunger strike. It has contributed to the current decision to move them to approved Covid hospitals where prison personnel and members of their families are already recovering.
“Out of nearly 37,000 inmates in different jails across the state, the prison system has now released 11,000 sub-trials booked for offences with imprisonment of less than seven years , despite the court orders. It was done to keep Covid in every prison, including Nagpur, distancing him. We ‘re trying to get more bails, or paroles of emergency, “Deshmukh said.
The state home minister, who met with prisoners and prison personnel to learn their concerns, said that after positive tests, 41 prisoners and 56 personnel are now recovering at various Covid centers. “Nine state prisons were in lockdown mode. There are a variety of ways it can spread the infection, “Deshmukh said.
The minister added that 414 prisoners tested positive across different state prisons and 281 have recovered. Similarly, Deshmukh also confirmed that in the state 162 prison personnel were contaminated but 90 were discharged already.
The prison administration has told Deshmukh that a team of five doctors is in place to treat the prisoners round the clock. As well, the home minister inspected the food and other facilities.
Ramanand stated that 37 temporary prisons for screening and testing newcomers were opened in 27 districts of the state. 2,665 newcomers to the jail were accommodated in such temporary arrangements before taking them inside the prison premises.
