Greater effort needed in prison outbreak control: Ministry

China's top regulator for prison management said on Friday it will strengthen efforts to curb the spread of novel coronavirus in the prison system after five prisons in the country reported confirmed cases among their inmates.

As of Thursday at midnight, prisons in Hubei province, center of the epidemic, have seen a total of 271 prisoners contracting the virus, of which 230 are from Wuhan Women's Prison and 41 are from Hanjin Prison in Shayang county, according to He Ping, the official responsible for prison management under the Ministry of Justice.

Another 10 inmates in the province - nine adults from Hanjin and one juvenile - were identified as suspected cases, he said at a daily press conference of the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council on Friday afternoon.

In addition, Rencheng Prison in Shandong province found 200 confirmed cases and 10 suspected ones, while Shilifeng Prison in Zhejiang province discovered 34 confirmed cases.

Among the infected prisoners, there have been no severe cases or deaths so far.

"We'll learn a lesson from the infections, further implementing the central leadership's requirements on prevention and control of the disease and having stricter close management in prisons," he said, adding they will try their best to save the patients and avoid the epidemic's spread in the prison system.

At the news conference, he also introduced some measures that have been taken in prisons since the virus swept the country.

In addition to tracking work and life habits of prison officials to prevent them from bringing the disease to inmates and conducting whole closed management in prisons, "we carried out body temperature monitoring and health questionnaire systems and gave quarantine for fever cases and those who had close contact with them," he said.

"We concentrated patients, medical experts and resources to ensure confirmed cases in prisons can be hospitalized as quickly as possible, and also offered psychological aid to inmates by organizing them to talk and meet with their families through calls and video calls."

The ministry has sent 28 teams to inspect prison work across the country, and prison officials must be held accountable for their mismanagement in outbreak control work, he said.

As of Friday, eight officials working for the prison system in Shandong, including the head of the Shandong Provincial Department of Justice, have been removed from office due to negligent prevention and control work.

The head of the Women's Prison in Hubei and head of the Shilifeng Prison in Zhejiang have also been removed from their positions for the same reason, he said.

Local police have launched an investigation into prison guards who were involved in the outbreak, he added.