28 April 2021 12:00 am
By Darshana Sanjeewa Balasuriya
At least 260 prison inmates have contracted Covid-19 in prisons across the country in the third wave of Covid-19, the Prison Department said.
Prison spokesman Chandana Ekanayake said that the Covid pandemic in the island had been under control to some extent in the past and now it was on the rise again.
“Recently, the Department decided to suspend visitors for a period of two weeks to prevent the virus from spreading in the prisons due to the fact that relatives were visiting the inmates,” he said.
In addition, the Spokesman said that all new prisoners will be kept in separate detention centres until PCR tests were conducted. “If an inmate tests positive, he/she will be transferred to the Kandakadu Treatment Centre and other non-infected prisoners will be sent back to the prisons after having served their quarantine formalities,” he said.
The Prisons Commissioner said the majority of those infected were new inmates who were being either remanded or sentenced.
“A few inmates are found to be infected within the prisons. The inmates who have been ordered to appear in Courts are being produced, while other inmates will face the legal proceedings through video technology,” he said.