Prisoner dies of Covid, infection source not traced

Thiruvananthapuram: The first Covid-19 death among prisoners was reported in the state on Sunday when a 72-year-old man, who was under treatment for the past one week, died at Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital.
Manikandan alias Yathiraj of Kilimanoor is the deceased. He was an under-trial prisoner facing murder charges. According to Poojappura Central Jail authorities, Manikandan was tested positive last Monday. He displayed symptoms of fever, following which the prison chief medical officer referred him to the medical college hospital. He was declared Covid-19 positive following a test conducted at the hospital.
Meanwhile, how Manikandan contracted the disease remains a mystery. He was brought to Poojappura jail in August 2016 after being arrested by Kilimanoor police in connection with a murder case. Since then he had been in the prison as he was never granted bail. Even though the prison granted emergency paroles and bails to several prisoners – both convicts and under-trials – he did not feature in that list too.
Jail joint superintendent N Sathyaraj said that while the release of the body will be handled by the district medical officials as per Covid-19 protocol, the prison authorities will be initiating steps to conduct procedures, including inquest, postmortem and magisterial inquiry as per norms stipulated by human rights commission in the event of custodial deaths.
Besides Manikandan, another 45-year-old inmate who shared the same prison block had also tested positive. However, he was sent back to the prison as his condition was not bad. Following this, the district medical office began antigen tests among the inmates from Wednesday.
So far, they have covered 730 inmates in seven prison blocks, out of which 36 have tested positive. Three assistant prison officers (APO) and the chief medical officer (CMO) have also tested positive. While one APO was tested positive on Thursday, another one along with the CMO turned positive in the tests conducted on Saturday. The third assistant prison officer turned positive in the tests done on Sunday. The central prison has 970 inmates housed in 11 blocks.
“The doctor turned positive in his second test. He had taken the first test on Wednesday in which he was declared negative,” the joint superintendent said.