72 inmates, seven staff of Mumbai's Arthur Road Jail test coronavirus COVID-19 positive

At least 72 inmates and seven staff members of the Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai have contracted coronavirus COVID-19 and they will be quarantined separately, said Maharashtra jail authorities on Thursday. A total of 200 samples were collected and except the 79, all other samples tested negative. 

All positive inmates will he shifted to GT Hospital and St George hospital in guarded vehicles on Friday morning. All staff members found positive will be shifted separately.

So far, a total of 79 people have been found positive and there is a stir within the jail, while a team of doctors from JJ Hospital has collected samples of 200 new inmates on Thursday.

Earlier, the state government had isolated 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, the 72 inmates were found to have contracted coronavirus after coming in contact with a cook who had caught the infection, news agency PTI reported quoting Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh. "These prisoners will be quarantined with the help of the Mumbai civic body," he said.

Deshmukh also said that to prevent the spread of the 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, reported PTI.

The capacity of Arthur Road Jail is only 800 inmates, but at present, there are more than 2,500 prisoners in this jail.

Following the directive of the Supreme Court, a High Power Committee was formed which directed that many inmates from this jail should be shifted to another place and deconstructed it, but even this order was still not fully implemented.

Complete lockdown is being followed at Arthur Road Jail since April 4 under which neither new prisoners were being taken in nor was there any appearance in any court.

The first case was revealed when a 45-year-old undertrial prisoner's health deteriorated and he was taken to JJ Hospital for treatment, he was found positive in the coronavirus test. After this, the samples of about 150 other prisoners and some security personnel, who came in contact with this prisoner, were collected and the report came out on Thursday.