Fifty seven girls living at a government-run shelter in Uttar Pradesh's Kanpur have tested positive for novel coronavirus. Among those tested positive for coronavirus, five girls, including two minors are pregnant. The two pregnant minors include an HIV positive girl. They are being treated in several hospitals in the district.

Kanpur DM Brahmdev Tiwari said, "57 girls have tested positive for COVID-19, which includes five girls found to be pregnant. This includes two minors and one HIV positive patient. They were sent by the Child Welfare Committees from Agra, Etah, Kannauj, Firozabad, Kanpur and were pregnant before they came to the shelter home," according to an India Today report. Tiwari further stated that these cases are under the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act.

The girls are likely to have contracted coronavirus after the shelter home staff visited a Kanpur hospital with two girls where they came in contact with COVID patients.

This, however, is not the first time that a coronavirus cluster has been reported from this shelter home in Kanpur as a woman tested positive for coronavirus a week ago. A few more tests were conducted after this. On June 18, the test results found 33 more girls positive for the virus. Over the next two days, 28 more girls in the shelter home tested positive.

Kanpur Commissioner Sudhir Mahadev told India Today that an investigation will be carried out to ascertain if any officer or employee is found guilty in the matter.

Meanwhile, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has launched an attack on the Yogi Adityanath-led UP government over the matter. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra alleged that the facts are suppressed in the name of investigations at such government-run facilities.