Three inmates who had come in contact with the officer have been shifted to the isolation block (File)
Tihar Jail reported its first coronavirus case after a 45-year-old assistant superintendent tested positive for the infection on Sunday, jail officials said.
The assistant superintendent, posted at Central Jail Number 7, is a resident of Staff Residential Complex of Tihar Jail, they said.
Director General (Prisons) Sandeep Goel said the assistant superintendent had taken leave on Friday as he wanted to go home and meet his family but he did not show any symptoms.
However, before leaving, he got himself tested for coronavirus on May 22 at Amrapali Hospital and his results came positive on Sunday, he said.
According to the jail officials, as the official has tested positive his contact tracing was done by jail authorities and it was found that one jail staffer was in close contact with the assistant superintendent. The staffer has been tested for coronavirus and his results are awaited. He has been quarantined at home.
While five others, including two other jail staffers, who also came in contact with the infected personnel, have been sent on home quarantine while three inmates have been kept in an isolation barrack, senior jail officials said.
As a precautionary measure, the infected official's nine neighbours, who work at different Delhi jails, have been asked to quarantine themselves and not to attend duties even though none of them came in contact with him, they said.
All the men are presently asymptomatic and authorities will keep a check on their medical condition, they added.
Till date, 18 people from Rohini Jail have tested positive for coronavirus while another case has been reported from Mandoli Jail after a deputy superintendent tested positive last week.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)