Tihar Jail reports first COVID-19 case as assistant superintendent tests positive

Tihar Jail reported its first coronavirus case after a 45-year assistant superintendent tested positive for the infection on Sunday, jail officials said.

The assistant superintendent, posted at Central Jail No 7, is a resident of Staff Residential Complex of Tihar Jail, they said.

Director General (Prisons) Sandeep Goel said the assistant superintendent had taken leave on Friday as he wanted to go home and meet his family but he did not show any symptoms.

However, before leaving, he got himself tested for COVID-19 on May 22 in Amrapali Hospital and his results came positive on Sunday, he said.

According to the jail officials, as the official was tested positive his contact tracing was done by jail authorities and it was found that one jail staffer, who is said to have been in close contact with the infected jail staffer, has been tested for COVID-19 but his results are awaited and he was sent for home quarantine.

While five others, including two other jail staffers, who also came in contact, have been sent on home quarantine while three inmates have been kept in an isolation barrack, senior jail officials said.

As a precautionary measure, the infected official's nine neighbours, who also work at different Delhi jails, have been asked to quarantine themselves and not to attend duties even though none of them came in contact with him, they said.

All the men are presently asymptomatic and authorities will keep a check on their medical condition, they added.

Till date, 18 people from Rohini Jail have tested positive for COVID-19 while another case was also reported from Mandoli Jail after a deputy superintendent tested positive last week.