Prison staffers have also started testing positive with their active case count reaching 46 from zero on December 31. (File) Active Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra prisons have risen from zero on December 31 to 246 in just under three weeks with 24 out of the 45 prisons in the state accounting for all these cases.
Officials said that most of these cases are among the newly admitted convicts or undertrials and they have been isolated in temporary prisons or the dedicated Covid care centres for inmates.
Yerawada central prison (84), Mumbai central prison (35), Kalyan district prison (44), Byculla district (15) and Thane central (13) are some of the jails with a high number of active Covid-19 cases.
Prison staffers have also started testing positive with their active case count reaching 46 from zero on December 31.
As per the data shared by the Pune-headquartered state prison administration, the 45 prisons in the state, including high-security central prisons, district, prisons and open jails, house 37,658 inmates as of Tuesday.
Officials said that while Covid-19 testing of all new admissions happens as per the protocol, they have also started testing high-risk inmates in prisons amidst the third wave hitting India now.
The prison administration has set up 41 temporary prisons during the pandemic. As per the set protocol, all the new admissions are initially housed in these temporary prisons and those with symptoms and those testing positive for Covid are isolated within these temporary prisons.
“All the active cases in the jails are currently housed in temporary prisons or Covid care centres for the inmates. We have also stepped up the testing of inmates within the main premises of prisons, as a precautionary measure,” said a prison department official.
Apart from the setting up of temporary prisons, the Maharashtra prison department has undertaken a slew of measures like decongestion through emergency bail and paroles, vaccinations of prison inmates and staff, testing of all incoming inmates and of the entire prison population, isolation of high-risk aged inmates, regular fumigation by local civic authorities, installation of 124 smartphones and 73 coin boxes for inmates’ non-contact communication with family and lawyers.
As of Tuesday, 34,507 inmates have received the first dose of Covid-19 vaccine and 27,708 both doses while 1.2 lakh tests have been conducted since the beginning of the pandemic.
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