As many as 95 inmates of the divisional jail at Chas tested positive for Covid-19 on Wednesday. They have been isolated in separate wards inside the jail, following a decision taken by a high-level district monitoring committee headed by deputy commissioner Rajesh Kumar Singh.
Chas subdivisional officer (SDO) Shashi Prakash Singh said a separate isolation ward was created immediately. The inspector-general of prisons, Jharkhand, has been intimated.
“We are waiting for the instruction from the inspector-general,” SDO Singh said. There were 594 inmates, including prisoners and undertrials, lodged at the jail. Of them, 23 are women. The administration conducted rapid antigen tests of all inmates on Tuesday.
“Ninety-five inmates tested positive for the coronavirus. They are mostly middle-aged. All the women inmates tested negative. Almost all the inmates who have tested positive are asymptomatic, but arrangements for doctors and medicines have been made,” said Singh.
“The inmates who tested positive have been isolated. Doctors are monitoring their condition. This is for the first time that inmates in the jail tested positive since the start of the pandemic,” said Dr A.K. Pathak, civil surgeon.
On August 24, 21 of the 35 inmates of the juvenile observation home in Bokaro had tested positive for Covid-19. The home run by the District Social Welfare Department has inmates from all the eight blocks of the district. Those who tested positive were shifted to an isolation centre at ITI Moad, Chas.
Biggest spike in district
Bokaro registered 335 positive cases of the coronavirus on Tuesday in the biggest spike in the number of cases in a day. The figure of active cases in the district reached 1,000.
The spike can be mostly attributed to the tests conducted at 12 spots on Tuesday.
“There were 9,852 people tested at the camp. Of them, 9,552 persons tested negative,” said Singh. The camp was conducted at the places such as the divisional jail, CRPF camp, police line and BSL.