Lucknow, Mar 19 (IANS): The Yogi Adityanath government will be launching a special drive to vaccinate all inmates lodged in the state prisons.

Sources said that while a decision to this effect has been taken, the standard operating procedure for the same is being drafted.

There are more than 1.16 lakh inmates lodged across 74 jails, including central jails, in Uttar Pradesh.

According to a health department officer, "Jail inmates belong to the vulnerable group. That is mainly because they live close to each other in barracks and following social distancing at times is not possible. In fact, many of them had taken ill because of the pandemic last year."

In fact, on Thursday, ten jail inmates in Kanpur tested positive for the coronavirus infection.

Earlier in January, 117 inmates and several jail officials in Basti had tested positive. Similar incidents were reported in Siddhartha Nagar, Agra and Jhansi as well.

Last year, during the lockdown, most inmates were sent home on parole so that the population inside the jail could ease.

Talking about the SOP, sources said: "Local administration will moderate and hold vaccination camps on the jail premises.

Ambulance network will be kept ready for transportation and management of inmates in case of any adverse event following immunization. However, so far, less than one per cent of people have reported side effects and no serious event has been recorded."

The officer also said that the data of inmates is already available with the state home department and also with district authorities.

Going by the numbers, all inmates may be covered in two days. Once everything falls in place, the vaccine drive may take next week.

Experts noted that cases in jails always come in bulk and isolation of suspected and positive patients is a tough task.

"Even a single positive case means launching a mammoth exercise to trace all possible contacts which may mean testing everyone in the jail. Therefore, vaccinating them is a logical idea," said an officer of the state home department.