Active Covid-19 cases rise in Maharashtra jails, patients isolated in temporary prisons

On December 31, there were no detected active cases among the prison population but by January 18, the number had reached 246.

Officials said that while testing of all new inmates takes place as per protocol, they have also started testing high-risk inmates in the prisons amid the third wave of infections.

Setting up temporary prison premises corresponding to every prison in the state was among the slew of measures undertaken by the administration during the pandemic.

As many as 41 such prisons were set up.

As per the protocol, all the new inmates are initially housed in these temporary prisons, and those with symptoms and those who test positive are isolated within these temporary prisons.

“All the active cases in the prisons are currently housed in the temporary prisons or the Covid care centres for inmates. We have also stepped up testing in the main prison premises as a precautionary measure.” said a prison department official.

Some of the prisons which have the highest number of active cases are: Yerawada Central Prison (84), Mumbai Central Prison (35), Kalyan District Prison (44), Byculla District Prison (15) and Thane Central Prison (13).

Prison staffers have also started reporting cases with the active case count reaching 46 from zero since December 31.

Some of the other measures taken by the prison department during the pandemic are decongestion through emergency bail and paroles, vaccination of prison inmates and staff, setting up 41 temporary prisons, testing of all incoming inmates and the entire prison population, separation of high-risk elderly inmates, regular fumigation by local civic authorities, and installation of smart phones and coinboxes for non-contact communication between inmates and their family and lawyers.

As on January 18, the first dose of vaccine has been administered to 34,507 and second dose to 27,708 inmates. As many as 1.2 lakh Covid-19 tests of inmates have been done since the pandemic began.