Chennai: Even as each district of Tamilnadu raised a red flag with rising number of Covid-19 cases, the Puzhal Central Prison in Chennai, one of the largest jails in the country, was expected to be a safe zone.
When the viral infection began spreading, the inmates were making masks and sanitisers for those in the frontline and received accolades for their work.
However now, nearly 31 persons in the prison complex have tested positive for the virus.
Officials said that even as 90 of them are put in isolation, they are tracing the contact history. No one in the women’s wing have the virus, sources said.
A team of health officials from Madhavaram is closing monitoring the health of the inmates.
It has come as a shock and the contact tracing is underway. It is said that the virus spread as the inmates were in close quarters with prisoners from Cuddalore and Tiruchi for a computer training programme.
However, a police source said that it may have been contracted from the weekly hospital visits.
“Those who have tested positive belong to the age group of 35 to 63. Some have gone to the government hospitals in the past few weeks after falling sick. They have visited Government Stanley Hospital and Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital”, he said. There are two doctors who are observing them while in isolation.
Those tested positive have been quarantined at a separate block inside the prison. The isolation block is given ample facilities just like in government hospitals. Puzhal jail houses 850 inmates at present.