CHITWAN, Jan 24: High vigilance has been adopted at the Bharatpur Prison Office as the COVID-19 infection has increased. The prison administration has stopped letting relatives of the inmates meet them at the prison saying that it holds the risk of COVID-19 transmission.

According to the office chief Kamal Prasad Kafle, such meetings have been closed due to the possible spread of COVID-19. Stating that there would be problems in keeping more inmates than the capacity, he informed Republica that they were closed as per the circular of the Department of Prison Management. The local administration has banned more than 25 people from gathering in public places.

He said, "As the risk has increased, we have stopped the meetings between the relatives and the prisoners." He stated that the prison office did not let new prisoners in without carrying out COVID-19 tests. "We do not take in the prisoners until the PCR test report is presented," he said.

He said that high precaution was taken after the death of a prisoner in the prison due to the COVID-19 infection. The prison administration has also provided a separate quarantine facility for the newly-arrived inmates and the inmates who have to be taken to a hospital. He said that a quarantine facility has been arranged with a capacity of 30 people where newcomers and patients are kept separately.

"Two rooms have been used for quarantining," he said. There are currently 13 inmates in the quarantine facility. As the number of inmates added to the prison increases, its capacity would be increased, Kafle said.

The prison, which has a capacity of 25 female and 255 male inmates, currently has 712 inmates. There are 50 women and 662 men in the prison. There are two dependent girls with the prisoners.

 
• prison
 
• COVID-19
 
• quarantine