With this, the total number of those who contractedthe infection in the jail in last 14 days has gone up to 19,including 17 prisoners and two jail guards, prisonsuperintendent Rakesh Kumar Bhangre said.
"Out of the 124 prisoners, who were already kept at atemporary jail located far from the Central Jail campus afterthey showed symptoms similar to coronavirus, nine have testedpositive for the disease," he said.
Prior to this, eight prisoners and two jail guardstested positive for the infection in the last fortnight, theofficial said.
Authorities suspect that the infection spread in thejail from a 58-year-old prisoner, who tested positive forCOVID-19 on April 14 after his arrest, the official said.
The prisoner and his 25-year-old son allegedly hurledstones at a policeman in Chandan Nagar locality here on April7. The son was booked under the National Security Act (NSA)and sent to the Jabalpur central jail where he tested positivefor coronavirus on April 11, Bhangre said.
On getting information about his son, the 58-year-oldprisoner was immediately admitted to a hospital in Indorewhere his test report came out positive for coronavirus onApril 14, he added.
Nearly 2,050 prisoners are lodged in the Indorecentral jail as against its capacity of 1,230, another prisonofficial said.
"We are screening all the prisoners daily. Thosehaving flu-like symptoms or fever are being quarantined," headded. HWP LAL MASGK GK