77 inmates and 26 officials from Arthur Road jail in Mumbai have tested positive for coronavirus, Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said. But reports say, most of them are asymptomatic.

After the coronavirus epidemic broke out, the state government had quarantined eight prisons in the state including the Arthur Road prison and ordered that no new person will be allowed to enter and those inside, including jail staff, will not be allowed to leave prison during the lockdown.

But despite the precautions, 72 inmates of Arthur Road prison were found to have contracted coronavirus after coming in contact with a cook who had caught the infection, Deshmukh had told reporters in Palghar district earlier in the day, according to PTI. After 72 inmates and 26 staffers testing positive for coronavirus, around 200 more swabs have been collected.

Deshmukh also said that to prevent the spread of virus in jails, the state government had decided to release on parole some 5,000 prisoners who have been sentenced to less than seven years'' imprisonment.

The jail houses 2,800 undertrials, however, with a capacity of only 800, social distancing becomes difficult in the prison. Currently, Yes Bank co-founder Rana Kapoor is also lodged in the Arthur Road jail.

Meanwhile,Union Health Ministry has issued additional guidelines for quarantine of returnees from abroad, contacts and isolation of suspect or confirmed cases in private facilities like hotels, service apartments and lodges. The guidelines came as there are large number of facilities such as hotels, service apartments and lodges which remain unoccupied due to impact of COVID-19 on travel and tourism and people who don’t have requisite space at home may opt for such facilities. This is likely to reduce the pressure on the family, give comfort to the person, and protect the family members and immediate neighborhood.

As per the guidelines, the quarantine and isolation facility will not co-exist and the facility owner will have a choice to dedicate the facility for either of the two. These facilities will offer single room on paid basis with attached washrooms and the tariff for the accommodation and services will be fixed by the facility in  consultation with the state government. The guidelines say that the cases will only be kept in an isolation facility, if the cases are clinically assessed  to be pre-symptomatic or very mild. Such facility that opts for isolation will have separate earmarked areas for keeping suspect cases and confirmed cases and will ensure no inter-mingling of these two categories.

The facility owner of the quarantine and isolation facility will   ensure in-house availability of a trained doctor and a nurse on 24X7 basis and the doctor will monitor the contacts and cases once a day. The doctor engaged by the facility will inform the District Surveillance Officer regarding the list of cases and contacts admitted to such facility and their health status. The facility should network with an approved laboratory for testing samples as per ICMR guidelines. The quarantined and isolated persons should not be allowed to meet visitors. However, they  can talk on phone. Besides, they will be provided Wi-Fi facility and ensure that the client downloads the Aarogya Setu App on mobile. 

Inputs :PTI