With coronavirus cases on the rise in Uttar Pradesh, The initiative taken in the last one week to extend immediate medical help to the inmates lodged in jails across the state has revealed that 1,200 prisoners have contracted coronavirus though majority of them are asymptomatic.

According to Director General, Prison Administration and Reform Services, Anand Kumar, till date about 1,40,000 tests, including those of  5,000 staff members, have been conducted in the state’s temporary and permanent jails, and over 7,000 have tested positive so far. 

Two inmates have died of COVID-19. 

Anand Kumar said that in the past one week, at least 128 prisoners tested positive for coronavirus infection in Fatehgarh Central Jail.

On Saturday, 76 prisoners were found positive. All of them have been kept in isolation in a separate jail barracks for treatment. 

Senior Superintendent of Fatehgarh Central Jail SHM Rizvi, said that the first case was reported on September 20 and since then 128 prisoners had been found infected with the disease. However, none of the patients’ health conditions are serious. 

Three medical officers have been deployed by the Health department inside the prison for monitoring, he added. 

The prison in Fatehgarh, at present, has around 2,000 inmates against its capacity of 1,600. 

“We are providing ‘kadha’, hot water and homeopathic medicines to all prisoners as a precaution and masks have been distributed to every prisoner,” he said.

Meanwhile, Anand Kumar said that despite the precautionary measures, several prisoners had got infected. “The main reasons are the movement of sick patients outside the jail for treatment and infection brought in by coronavirus positive asymptomatic staff,” he explained.