Jammu: In a novel way to pep up the spirits of COVID-19 infected prisoners, the Amphalla district jail here organised a musical concert with trained inmates performing live for their fellow mates.
The 40-minute programme on Saturday saw a group of trained prisoners, including two women, performing live amid adequate preventive measures to check the spread of the infection.
“Music is a great healer and we have started the concert on humanitarian grounds to uplift the morale of the inmates who were recently tested positive for the viral disease and isolated in separate blocks,” District Jail Superintendent Mirza Saleem Ahmad Beig said.
More such concerts will be organised for the COVID-19 positive prisoners to lift their spirits, officials said.
While one of the inmates with co-morbidities at the jail was shifted to Government Medical College hospital after testing positive for coronavirus last week, rest of the 79 prisoners are asymptomatic and have been kept in isolation in their blocks to prevent the spread of the disease, they said.
Besides the prisoners, three jail staffers have tested positive for COVID-19 and their condition is stable.
This is the highest number of prisoners testing positive for COVID-19 in any jail in Jammu region though such cases have also surfaced in central jail Kot Bhalwal, district jail Kathua and district jail Bhaderwah in the recent past, prompting the jail authorities to plan separate facilities near the jail for the infected inmates, they said.
“The objective of the concert was to de-stress the COVID-19 positive prisoners. All the six singers and two musicians who performed voluntarily were trained in the jail over the past one year,” the jail superintendent said.
He said the programme was introduced shortly after testing of all 644 inmates and staff of the jail.
Beig emphasised that all COVID-19 safety rules were followed while conducting the event. A distance of at least 15 feet was maintained for the safety of the performers, the official said.
Another highlight of the programme was a poem written by the inmates on their resolve to fight back the infectious disease and emerge victorious by following the SOPs religiously, he added.
