NEW DELHI: All Covid-19 patients have recovered in prisons in the national capital and at present there is not a single case of coronavirus, said prison authorities on Friday. Two inmates at Tihar jail were found to be Covid-19 positive on August 3. However, both of them have recovered.
“The situation of Covid-19 pandemic has now much improved in the prisons. As on August 21, there is no inmate who is Covid-19 positive in the three jails — Tihar, Rohini and Mandoli — in Delhi,” said Sandeep Goel, director general (DG), prisons. So far, 63 inmates of the three jails have tested positive for the infection. Sixty-one of them have recovered and two died, the jail official said.
Kanwar Singh, a 62-yearold inmate lodged in Mandoli Jail died of coronavirus became the first casualty in Delhi’s prison. “The first case of an inmate testing positive was on May 13 in Rohini Jail. Two other Covid- 19 positive inmates of Mandoli Jail had unfortunately died on June 15 and July 4. Both were senior citizens,” Goel added. Singh was serving life sentence in a 2016 murder case.
He was lodged in Central Jail number- 14 and was asymptomatic. A total of 169 prison staffers, 87 of Delhi jail and 82 of Tamil Nadu Special Police, also contracted the infection. Of them, 167 personnel have recovered and only two are still active cases, he said. In May, Tihar Jail reported its first coronavirus case as a prison official- -Assistant Superintendent Chet Ram Meena—was tested positive. Meena is a resident of Tihar Jail’s Staff Residential Complex. In view of the pandemic, the jail authorities released hundreds of inmates to decongest jails.