Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan on Sunday virtually inaugurated three Covid-19 isolation centres in three prisons to help prevent spread of the virus.

The centres_ 70-bed in the central jail of Keraniganj, 41-bed in Feni District Jail-2, and 28-bed in Kishoreganj District Jail-2_ were set up with support from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

 Katja Lorenz, the ICRC Head of Delegation in Bangladesh said prisoners are among the most vulnerable population when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic. 

"Hence, it is essential for the prisons to be able to separate prisoners who have caught the virus from the rest of the prison population,” he said.

The ICRC support included designing and setting up the centres and providing technical support to establish guidelines and to implement infection prevention and control measures, he said.

“We also provided basic medical and sanitation equipment as well as furniture,” said Katja.

The centers were set up in cooperation between the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA), the Prisons Directorate, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), and the ICRC.

Md Mokabbir Hossain, Secretary of the Security Services Division, the Ministry of Home Affairs, Brigadier General Md Mominur Rahman Mamun, Inspector General (IG) of Prisons, Colonel Md Abrar Hossain, Additional IG Prisons, and Henning Krause, ICRC Protection Coordinator in Bangladesh were present at Keraniganj Central Jail, while the home minister opened it virtually.

Brigadier General Md Mominur Rahman Mamun, Inspector General (IG) of Prisons said the Prisons Directorate has been consistently working since the beginning of the pandemic to develop an efficient and comprehensive system to prevent the spread of COVID-19 inside prisons. 

In 2021, the ICRC donated Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to selected prisons and the Prisons Directorate Headquarters. 

It is currently preparing another donation to all 68 prisons across Bangladesh as requested by the Prisons Directorate to tackle the latest wave of the pandemic, ICRC said.