77 inmates, 26 staff at Mumbai's Central Prison test positive for COVID-19

MUMBAI - Mumbai's largest and oldest prison has at least 77 of its inmates along with 26 staff testing positive for the COVID-19.

Confirming the development late on Thursday, Anil Deshmukh, home minister for India's western state of Maharashtra, which has Mumbai as its political capital, said "These prisoners are being quarantined with the help of the Mumbai civic body and will be sent to city civic hospital for treatment".

Built in 1926 and upgraded in 1994 as Mumbai Central Prison, it is popularly referred by its old name as Arthur Road Jail. Spread over 0.81 hectares, the city's Central Prison houses around 2,800 prisoners, though it has a capacity to occupy around 800 inmates.

The number of inmates and staff infected with the virus is likely to rise, a local television channel said quoting prison officials.

Following the outbreak of the virus, India's apex court Supreme Court in March called for decongesting all prisons in the country following which Maharashtra released some 5,000 prisoners out of the total 26,000 prisoners in the state, who have been sentenced for less than seven years imprisonment on parole, the minister said.

The state has 9 prisons with a capacity to house around 14,000 inmates.

As per the official update on Thursday night, Mumbai has 11,219 positive cases with 692 fresh cases added during the past 24 hours. The death toll in the city rose to 437 with 25 new casualties on Thursday.