Puri jail inmate tests +ve, 1st in state

Bhubaneswar: An inmate of Puri jail tested positive for Covid-19 on Sunday, making it the first instance of virus attack in a jail in the state. “We have taken all precautions after an inmate tested positive. The person was arrested in a robbery case on Friday. According to the standard protocol, he had undergone Covid test before being forwarded to judicial custody. His swab report came out positive. He is a local resident of Puri. Investigation is on to find out the source of infection. Contact tracing is also underway. The police personnel who had come in contact with the accused have been sent on home isolation and their swab test is being done,” Puri SP Uma Shankar Dash said.
DGP (prisons) Santosh Upadhyay said the undertrial was kept in a separate cell. Official statistics said the capacity of 85 jails in the state is 19,016. At present, there are 16,931 prisoners in the jails.
Debabrata Mohapatra