23 prison guards, 2 inmates test Covid-19 positive

At least 23 prison guards and two inmates tested Covid-19 positive in different prisons across the country, a jail official said.

Besides, 68 other prison guards and officials, and 249 inmates are in quarantine for showing coronavirus-like symptoms and coming in contact with Covid-19 patients, Monzur Hossain, assistant inspector general (admin) at the Department of Prisons headquarters, told the Daily Star today.

Of the infected inmates, two from Panchagarh district jail are now undergoing treatment at Rangpur Medical College Hospital and the district jail hospital, he said.

Another infected inmate of Dhaka Central Jail was released from jail today after he served his time to completion, said the jail official.

According to the jail authority, 41 guards and 15 inmates are quarantined in Dhaka division, while two jail staffers in Sylhet division, 14 jail guards and 210 inmates in Rangpur division, one jail guard in Barishal division and 10 jail guards and 24 inmates in Chattogram division are also quarantined.

The prisons department earlier arranged isolation units for inmates inside jails in Kishoreganj, Madaripur, Pirojpur, Sylhet, Feni and Dinajpur districts, according to a report of the home ministry's special coordination cell.

The jail authorities said they keep new inmates in 14-day quarantine periods before putting them inside the cell with others.

Sources at the prison department said there are around 85,000 prisoners against the capacity of 41,244 in the country's 68 jails.

The home ministry, after taking opinions from the law ministry, recently ordered the prisons authorities to release 2,884 inmates who were jailed for one year or less for minor offences, but served months in jails, to ease the accommodation crisis and minimise the risk of novel coronavirus transmission in overcrowded prisons.