Bhubaneswar, May 29: Odisha jails are now becoming Corona hotspots during the second wave of the pandemic. At least 816 prisoners have tested positive in as many as 33 jails so far.

According to the department of prison, the month of May has seen around 816 Corona positive cases among the inmates. However, the number of active cases is 396 after recovery of 420. At the same time deadly Corona has claimed 3 lives from jails in the state.

On the other hand, the Jail authorities are taking utmost precaution to keep the jail premises out of Corona. Testing and vaccination drive has been beefed up while the overcrowded jails are emptied with bailing out some elderly inmates. In this process around 1570 inmates have been released so far. Similarly, 658 prisoners from the over crowed jails have been transferred to less crowded jails as an aid to Covid management. Notably, out of 87 jails, 54 jails have not seen a single case of Corona so far.