DG Prisons tests +ve

New Delhi: Director-General of Delhi Prisons, Sandeep Goel has now tested positive for COVID-19, jail officials said on Friday, adding that Goel got himself tested after he felt some body ache. Later his report on Tuesday confirmed that he was positive for the novel Coronavirus. "Hopefully, my condition will improve in the days to come," DG Goel told Millennium Post.

Since the outbreak, 70 inmates and 188 prison staff have tested positive for the virus, of which 63 inmates recovered and two inmates succumbed to the contagious disease; whereas 168 staff members have recovered so far. According to data shared by the prison authorities on September 8, the number of active COVID-19 cases in Delhi Prisons stood at 25, including 20 jail staff.

However, the Delhi Prisons Department had earlier declared that there was no active COVID-19 cases among the inmates in its three jail complexes. On August 21, the Delhi Prisons Department had stated that none of the inmates in the three jail complexes of Tihar, Rohini and Mandoli are coronavirus positive and that the pandemic situation in jails here had improved.

Goel said they have taken several steps to curb COVID-19 inside prisons. "In a bid to decongest the prisons, around 4,000 inmates were released through interim-bail and emergency parole. We also restricted entries inside prisons like jail mulaqat facility was suspended. We also conducted repeated medical screening of inmates. There were also isolation cells for those having ILI (influenze-like illness) symptoms," he said. When asked, an official said that around 14,600 inmates were currently lodged in prisons here.