At least 260 prison inmates have been contracted with Covid-19 at 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 has been under control to some extent in the past and now it is 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 the relatives who come to visit the inmates. 

In addition, the spokesman said that all new prisoners will be kept in separate detention centres until  PCR tests are conducted.

If an inmate tested positive, he/she will be transferred to the Kandakadu Treatment Centre and other non-infected prisoners would be sent back to the prisons after having served their quarantine formalities, he said.

The Prisons Commissioner said the majority of those infected are new inmates who are being remanded or sentenced. 

"A few inmates are found to be infected from inside prisons. The inmates who have been ordered to appear in court are being produced in court while other inmates will face the legal proceedings through video technology," he said.

In addition, all the officers on duty in the institutions are performing their duties safely adhering to health guidelines issued by the Director-General of Health Services and the Prisons Authority has been informed to provide the necessary transport facilities to all the officers, the spokesman said. (Darshana Sanjeewa Balasuriya)