New Delhi: The prisons authority in Delhi has now written to the Delhi government seeking the appropriate resources to start vaccinating its largest prison population group —aged between 18 and 45 years. This comes as the city struggles to procure vaccines and centres keep shutting down every day.
Already struggling to ensure social distancing in jails meant for 10,000 but housing at least 19,000 inmates, Delhi prisons have vaccinated a total of 1,300 of its inmates across the three jail complexes — all 45 or above. Around 16,000 inmates across jails are aged between 18 and 45 years, according to one jail official. The statistics provided by the prison authority revealed that 920 in Tihar received the shot whereas 112 in Rohini and 219 in Mandoli jails were given the vaccine dose. Apart from this, 49 inmates in Tihar jail also received the second dose. As per officials, more than 85 percent of the jail staff has been vaccinated.
Till May 7, about 535 inmates, jail officials have tested positive for the virus during this second wave of the pandemic. "359 inmates were affected by the contagious disease in which 222 have recovered and six died whereas 176 prison staff tested positive, of which 42 have recovered," the data showed.
The Prisons Authority had earlier said they have taken measures to curb COVID-19 inside jails. As per one official, they were carrying out 'Rapid Tests' of jail staff, paramilitary staff and others, as per ICMR guidelines and thermal screening of the jail staff is also being conducted before letting them enter the jail premises. Jail staff was cautioned to wear masks and to maintain social distancing while interacting with each other as well as with inmates.
According to the prison authority, they have procured four oxygen concentrator machines. The Delhi Health Department has also supplied them with 15 oxygen concentrator machines with jail officials saying their hospitals had enough concentrators.
As per officials, inmates are being tested as per the ICMR guidelines with Rapid Antigen Test and they have sufficient availability and regular supply of essential medicines and equipment including oximeters and oxygen cylinders in the jail hospitals. An official also confirmed that the process of decongesting prisons was started on Thursday in light of the pandemic as per the Supreme Court's orders. The optimum holding capacity of Delhi Prisons is 10,026. As of May 4, 19,679 inmates were lodged across these jails.