In a first, Madhya Pradesh govt organizes vaccination camp for prisoners in jail

New Delhi March 20 (ANI): For the first time in Madhya Pradesh, prisoners in the Central Jail of Indore have been vaccinated against COVID-19. This comes after several inmates and jail staff in the Central Jail had tested positive for COVID-19 during the past year.

Laxman Singh Bhadauria, Deputy Superintendent of the Central Jail, told ANI, “In the past year, many prisoners and prison staff had contracted coronavirus, for whom temporary jails and quarantine centres were built. They were given vitamin C, decoction and other such things to recover. Although no one died during this time, currently five prisoners and two staff members are corona positive who are undergoing treatment.”

According to jail authorities, these are the first jails of Madhya Pradesh where Superintendent Rakesh Bhangra has set up a vaccination camp in collaboration with the district administration.

Today, 300 vaccines have been received which have been administered to prisoners and some staff. Among them are those who are more than 45 years old and have other diseases, besides those who are over 60 years old, they added.

They further said that 90 per cent of the people among the jail staff, including Deputy Superintendent Bhadoria, had already got vaccinated.

Dr Vivek Singh Chauhan, who administered the vaccine in the jail, said, “300 doses of Covishield vaccine have been received. All prisoners are to be vaccinated. Today 150 people will be vaccinated. The remaining vaccinations will continue even further. For the first time in Madhya Pradesh, vaccination is being conducted in a jail.”

According to the Union Health Ministry, Madhya Pradesh is among the eight states with a visible rising trajectory of daily new cases.

The state reported 1,140 new cases in the last 24 hours, said the ministry.