Covid-19: All 20 jail cases traced to asymptomatic officers

Till Monday evening, the three jailcomplexes, which together house a total of 14,000 prisoners and around 1800 jail officers, had reported 20 positive cases among prisoners and jail officials.

A string of measures — ban on biweekly visits from family members, segregation of new inmates to an isolated jail for the first 14 days and holding court proceedings through video conference from within the prison — has not been able to prevent the Covid-19 virus from creeping in to all the three jail complexes of Tihar, Rohini and Mandoli in Delhi.

At least 17 families living in different flats at the Tihar residential complex, located behind Tihar jail, have been told to go in home-quarantine for 14 days. (Biplov Bhuyan/HT PHOTO)

Till Monday evening, the three jailcomplexes, which together house a total of 14,000 prisoners and around 1800 jail officers, had reported 20 positive cases among prisoners and jail officials.

Senior prison officers said that contact tracing so far has revealed that in all the three jails, the virus reached the prison through jail officers, who did not show any symptoms.

At least 17 families living in different flats at the Tihar residential complex, located behind Tihar jail, have been told to go in home-quarantine for 14 days.

“In at least 17 flats, the officers are in self-isolation. Around 60 people in those flats are in home isolation. The officials in Tihar and Rohini jail, who were infected with the virus, were both residents of Tihar quarters. Only the Mandoli deputy superintendent, who tested positive on ??, lived somewhere else,” said a prison officer, who did not wish to be named.

Prison officers also said that barring the case of the Mandoli jail officer, all 19 prisoners and jail officials were asymptomatic. The officials fear that many more inside the prison may be infected with the virus and have ordered all jail superintendents to ensure that both prisoners and jail officers follow social distancing norms strictly.

“At Rohini jail, we came to know that a 29-year-old prisoner had been infected with the virus after he was rushed to a hospital for surgery. By the time we were informed by the hospital, 15 inmates and one head warder had already contracted the disease. All the 15 prisoners were behind bars since the lockdown. They had no interaction with anyone outside. The head warder lived in Sonipat, Haryana which is a (coronavirus) hotspot. Later, another assistant superintendent of Rohini jail, who too lived in the Tihar residential complex, tested positive. The Tihar official, who tested positive on Sunday, is also a resident of the same complex. All the infected prisoners have been behind bars since the lockdown. The transmission has happened through asymptomatic jail officers. This is a practical problem. We can do little about it, except advising them to ensure social distancing,” a second prison officer, who did not wish to be named, said.

Until Monday afternoon, Delhi had reported 14,053 cases of Covid-19, and 276 deaths. At least 6,771 people had recovered and been discharged from hospitals, the Delhi government’s daily health bulletin showed.

To prevent the spread of the virus, around 3,000 inmates have been released on interim bail and parole. All new prisoners are being kept in isolation at jail number 2 for 14 days, before being shifted to other jails. The biweekly family visit of all prisoners were suspended in March. They are, however, in touch with their families through the prison’s landline phones.

The prisons’ inspector general, Raj Kumar, said that many officers living in flats inside the residential complex were told to self-isolate as a precautionary measure. “ The complex is not a hotspot. It is a precaution that we are taking to contain the spread of the disease. There complex is a collection of flats, so we directed those families living in the same or adjacent building to self-isolate as a precaution. The sanitisation process is also being carried as a precaution. Inside the prison, all our officials, as well as prisoners, are following social distancing norms. We immediately quarantine a prisoner or any officials, if he/she shows any symptoms.”

Dr Puneet Mishra, professor of Community Medicine at AIIMS said it is important to take more precautions in a prison, where inmates share space. “ The government is already decongesting the prison. Transmission through asymptomatic officers is a possibility if the infected prisoners were not new or were locked all these months. It is important to conduct periodic surveillance of all prisoners if cases have started showing inside the prisons. I am not sure how much of it is possible in a prison, where space is confined, but the prisoners must be advised to maintain social distancing, wash their hands several times, use masks and take all other precautions.”