Authorities in Uttarakhand’s Rudrapur area have converted a banquet hall into a temporary Covid care centre for prisoners to house 73 inmates who tested positive for Covid-19 in the central jail in Sitarganj on Thursday.
Two elderly Covid-19 positive prisoners from Sitarganj Jail have also died at Susheela Tiwari Government Hospital Haldwani in the last three days. They were admitted in the hospital last week where their Covid-19 tests were carried out.
“Prisoners who tested Covid-19 positive on Thursday have been housed in a banquet hall in Rudrapur. Health officials are conducting Covid-19 test on the rest of the prisoners in jail,” said Dadhi Ram Maurya, superintendent, central jail, Sitarganj.
Sitarganj jail has around 700 prisoners. Samples are being collected for the rest of the prisoners for RT-PCR test.
“So far 337 samples have been collected in the last two days after the 73 prisoners tested positive”, said Maurya.
“Two teams of the health officials are collecting samples of the prisoners after 73 prisoners tested positive. This is the third round of testing in the jail. Earlier in March and August, samples were collected since the outbreak started in the state,” he said.
The jail superintendent said the entire prison premise is being sanitized twice a day as a precautionary measure. “Entry and exit from jail premises has been absolutely restricted to curb the further spread of the virus. Social distancing is also being maintained by prisoners in jail,” he said.
Two elderly Covid-19 positive prisoners from Sitarganj Jail have also died at Susheela Tiwari Government Hospital Haldwani in the last three days.
“They were admitted for treatment in the last week at the hospital in Haldwani. Later, they tested positive for Covid-19. The two prisoners included a 76-year- old prisoner who hailed from Kunwarpur Sisaiyan village and an 86-year-old prisoner, who was from Bichai village. Both these villages fall under Nanakmatta police station in Udham Singh Nagar district,” said Maurya
