Prison staff vaccinated, but 650 inmates await his shot

Even as vaccination of around 2,000 prison staff is to be completed, officials are trying to figure out how to get 650 prisoners from Delhi jails, including Tihar, Rohini and Mandoli jails.

A senior Tihar jail official said that there are around 350 prisoners over the age of 60 and 300 over 45 years with comorbidities. He sent the list of prisoners to the Delhi government for further processing. But a decision is pending.

He said, ‘We have shared the list of prisoners for vaccination but due to lack of registration process it has been delayed. We are exploring the process for registering them as prisoners cannot be taken out for vaccination and mobile phones cannot be used to register themselves on the vaccination portal. We had a meeting with senior officials and this will be done as soon as possible.

Director-General (Prisons) Sandeep Goyal said that currently there is only one COVID-19 case among prisoners. They are strictly following social distance and other guidelines. “All prison staff and security personnel are being vaccinated and the target has almost been attained,” Mr. Goyal said. He said that the vaccination of prisoners would begin after the completion of the process formalities.

“A total of 1,184 prisoners were given emergency parole during the epidemic and their parole expired on 6 March. According to the instructions, all of them must report back. The rest of them have returned, leaving 200 prisoners. They are contacting them and asking them to report as soon as possible, ”Mr. Goyal said.

Virus tally

A total of 293 prison staff have contracted the infection so far, and all of them have recovered. In addition, 120 inmates have tested positive for the virus so far and have left all but two who have died and one is undergoing treatment.