Inmates nowhere on booster-shot agenda

The government’s inability to ensure inoculation and safety-standards in prisons has once again left tens and thousands of inmates dangerously exposed to infection, as the new Omicron variant of Covid-19 startles the local healthcare system.

While booster shots have been okayed for Health workers and immune-compromised persons in the country, the thousands of elderly behind bars, living in the most deplorable conditions, are yet to receive a word on their access to supplementary vaccines.

This is the case when over 3,048 prisoners out of a total of 28,569 prisoners locked up across 22 jails in Sindh, had already tested positive for Covid-19 as of April 2021. Owing to living conditions that encourage super-spreader events and the authorities’ inability to ameliorate overcrowding in lockups, it is feared that numbers could have only gone up since then. Whereas, news of a new variant at large, has started to strike fear within the province’s prison population, among whom are some who are yet to receive their second dose.

According to a previous interview of Inspector General of Prisons Qazi Nazir Ahmad, the process of vaccination of inmates in all the jails across Sindh started on the 6th of April 2021, and was expected to be completed soon. After the first dose, the second dose was to be given to all inmates and staff members according to the schedule, but it is unclear how many prisoners are currently fully-vaccinated in the province.

Read More: Inmates remain vulnerable to Covid

Regarding booster shots however, the National Command and Operation Center’s latest guideline says that they are to be administered free of charge and on a voluntary basis to three age groups including healthcare workers, people over 50 years of age and immuno-compromised groups from 1st December.

When probed about the unavailability of booster shots for the tens of thousands of prisoners, many among whom are also immune-compromised and above 50-years of age, a health department worker said on conditions of anonymity, that the government doesn’t have any plans for the said group so far. “We are currently working on making booster doses available to the general public, but prisons do not fall under the health department’s domain. Prisons are overseen by the ministry of interior, so booster shots can only be provided to prison inmates when the interior minister announces for that,” he told The Express Tribune.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 7^th, 2021.