Five prisoners from Chennai shifted to Madurai tested for Covid-19, results to be declared on Thursday

MADURAI: Five prisoners in Madurai Central Prison, who returned from Puzhal Central Prison in Chennai recently, were tested for Covid-19 on Wednesday. According to an official from the prison department, the tests were conducted as a precautionary measure.
A mobile medical team with sample lifting facility was sent to Madurai Central Prison on Wednesday morning. The prisoners’ samples were sent to the laboratory in Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH) within a few hours.Their test results are expected to be declared on Thursday.
The five of them were shifted to Puzhal for a six-week para legal volunteers’ training programme in the second week of March. The programme was called off after the lockdown was announced. They were sent back to Madurai prison last week.
A higher official from prisons department said that they were kept in isolation in a hospital in the prison campus. The testing was conducted as a precautionary measure as three other prisoners, who were shifted to prisons in Trichy and Cuddalore from Chennai were tested positive for Covid-19.
The official said various precautionary measures were taken in prisons, including distribution of immunity boosters like arsenicum album-30, vitamin pills, zinc tablets and kabasura kudineer.
To prevent the spread of Covid-19, prisoners are initially lodged in sub-jails for 14 days before shifting them to the central prisons, he said. Over 200 remand prisoners were released on bail from Madurai Central Prison to decongest the prison, the official added.