Jharkhand’s largest prison, Birsa Munda Central Jail in Ranchi, which had emerged as one of the hotspots of Covid-19 with over 300 infections is now Covid-free, prison authorities said on Monday.

In all, Birsa jail has 3,625 prisoners. Since August, 1,239 prisoners have been tested for Covid-19 in the jail and none of them was found infected, said jail superintendent Hamid Akhter. “We do not have any active cases of infection. All the infected prisoners and staff have recovered, and no fresh case of Covid-19 infection has surfaced in the past one month,” Akhter said.

The rapid spread of the virus among prisoners and staff at the central jail had become a cause for concern for the authorities in August. Nearly 350 prisoners and staff had tested positive for Covid-19 in the jail by the end of August, forcing the authorities to take precautionary measures and provide additional healthcare facilities to prisoners.

“We conducted three Covid testing drives in the past month. Around 100 to 150 prisoners were tested in every such drive,” said the jail superintendent, adding that the jail authorities intensified testing to identify asymptomatic patients and ensure that no case of infection goes undetected.

While prisoners were infected in other state jails too, Birsa Munda Jail was the only jail that reported cases in triple digits, authorities said. Of the 350 that tested positive, 221 were prisoners, while the rest were members of the staff.

However, there are still a few active cases of Covid-19 infection in other jails in Jharkhand. Besides the one in Ranchi, there are four other central jails in East Singbhum, Hazaribagh, Dumka and Daltonganj, in addition to over a dozen divisional and sub-divisional jails.

Owing to the explosion of cases at the Birsa Munda Central Jail, authorities took special measures to boost the immunity of prisoners. Special basil saplings were planted in the jail premises to ensure that prisoners and staff are served kadha (a therapeutic herbal drink) every day, jail authorities said.

“We also served boiled eggs to the infected prisoners. Vitamin D and vitamin C supplements were also administered to the prisoners in a bid to boost their immune system,” said Akhter.

Even though there were no cases of infection in the jail anymore, the authorities are still taking precautionary measures and providing a healthy diet to prisoners as well as staff members in the jail, Akhter said. “Swab samples of random prisoners will be collected even in the days to come to ensure that the virus does not enter the jail premises again,” he added.

As many as five doctors were keeping a watch on the prisoners in the jail to spot symptoms. Besides, prophylaxis, vitamin supplements and paracetamols were made available in sufficient quantities to the jail administration.