3 active COVID-19 cases in Noida, Ghaziabad jails

Noida/Ghaziabad: Three inmates of prisons in Gautam Buddh Nagar and Ghaziabad have contracted COVID-19 and are undergoing treatment, officials said on Thursday.

Of the three prisoners, two are inmates of Dasna jail in Ghaziabad and one of Luksar jail in Gautam Buddh Nagar, a senior official said.

While one of the prisoners tested positive for the viral infection on Wednesday, the other two were found to have contracted the disease earlier this week, he said.

Vipin Mishra, the superintendent of both Dasna and Luksar prisons, told PTI: "On Wednesday, we got COVID-19 test reports of 148 inmates from Gautam Buddh Nagar and all of them were negative. There were 76 samples from Ghaziabad and one of them was positive."

There were two more instances of the coronavirus infection from prisons of the adjoining districts in western Uttar Pradesh, but those inmates have now recovered and returned to the jails, he said.

Prison authorities have stepped up precautionary measures and introduced quarantine system for new prisoners, and started offering inmates 'kaadha' -- a traditional concoction of herbs and spices -- to boost their immunity and check the spread of the infection.

"Screening is done regularly and any inmate with symptoms like cough or fever is isolated. They are also offered 'kaadha'. New prisoners are kept in temporary jail in quarantine for 14 days unless they test COVID-19 negative," Mishra said.

Gautam Buddh Nagar and Ghaziabad are two of the districts worst-hit in Uttar Pradesh by the pandemic. The two districts, adjoining Delhi, together have nearly 2,500 active cases of COVID-19 and recorded 93 deaths, according to official figures.