This is the second report of a large number of inmates at shelter homes in the state testing positive for the coronavirus infection.
New Delhi: Ninety inmates of a government shelter home for girls here have tested positive for COVID-19.
Deputy director of the Women Welfare Department, Nita Ahirwar, said, “In the past two days, 90 inmates of Nari Niketan here have tested positive for COVID-19. All of them have been isolated.”
It has not yet been determined how the inmates contracted the coronavirus infection, she said.
In late June, there were reports of 57 girls at a state-run children’s shelter home in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur district testing positive for COVID-19. It was also discovered that five of the girls were pregnant. At the time, there were allegations that the home was overcrowded and had poor facilities.
The news prompted the Uttar Pradesh government to order the authorities to test all inmates lodged in women and children shelter homes and observations homes across Uttar Pradesh for COVID-19.
The women and child welfare department said this order was part of a preventive drive. District magistrates across all 75 districts of the state were asked to mandatorily conduct COVID-19 tests of all inmates lodged in the homes in their respective districts. Uttar Pradesh has more than 300 homes in which more than 5,500 inmates are housed, according to reports.
Courtesy The Wire
