Fifty-seven of the 171 inmates of Rajkiya Balgrih (Balika), a state-run shelter home for girls, in Kanpur have tested positive for Covid-19.
Five of the 57 infected minor girls are pregnant and one of them is HIV-positive.
They have apparently contracted the virus from three employees of the shelter home, who were infected during a visit to a local hospital.
Poonam Kapoor, a member of State Women’s Commission, who has been looking after the shelter home, said: “Some members of the home had gone to LLR Hospital in the city for some work and it seems that they got infected there and unknowingly transmitted the virus to the inmates.”
On the pregnant girls, Kapoor said: “They were brought here in December 2019 after their pregnancy and cases have been registered against the accused persons in their respective districts under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act.”
Kapoor added that the shelter home was well-protected and the entry of outsiders was completely prohibited.
She said chief minister Yogi Adityanath had sought a report in the case.
Kanpur district magistrate Brahm Dev Ram Tiwari said the infected girls and the employees had been admitted to different Covid-19 hospitals in the district while the other inmates and staff members had been shifted to a quarantine facility.
“The pregnant girls from Kanpur, Kannauj, Etah, Firozabad and Agra were admitted to the shelter home on the directive of the child welfare committees of the respective districts,” Tiwari said, confirming that one of the pregnant girls was HIV positive.
The samples of 171 inmates and 26 employees were sent for Covid-19 test two days ago when the initial symptoms of the disease were noticed in them.
Senior superintendent of police Dinesh Kumar said the doctors, who had been taking care of the pregnant girls, had sought their medical history.
“The documents are there in the shelter home, but we are not able to collect them at the moment because the premises have been sealed in keeping with the protocol,” he said.
