Kochi: The Kerala High Court has directed the state government to "continuously" administer vaccines to the prisoners and others in central prisons and other jails to prevent spread of COVID-19 there.
The high court also directed the Director General of Prisons and Correctional Services to monitor the administration of vaccines.
With the directions, the court disposed of a plea initiated by it on its own based on a prisoner's letter claiming that no vaccination was being carried out in prisons in the state.
The court's order came after the state government informed it that there were only 4,808 prisoners in the prisons in Kerala and that majority of them have been given the first dose of vaccination and special initiatives have been taken to vaccinate the prisoners in different age groups.
The state government also told the court that vaccination was being done for the remand prisoners and others periodically.
Recording the submission of the state, the court directed, "We order that the administration of vaccination to the prisoners and others in the Central Prisons and other jails should be done continuously and that the same has to be monitored by the Director General of Prisons and Correctional Services, Thiruvananthapuram."
As per a Hindustan Times report, Kerala, with 15,876 fresh cases on Wednesday, has passed its peak of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases, a leading health expert has said.
At 1,98,865, the number of active cases in the state dropped to below two lakh mark, with 25,654 people by Tuesday and the total recoveries rising to 41,84,158, according to Kerala's health department.
The positivity rate stood at 15.12% after 1,05,005 samples were tested in a 24-hour span, the department said.
