CHANDIGARH: Twenty-six inmates of Ludhiana Central Jail, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) and his wife tested positive for coronavirus on Sunday, Ludhiana Chief Medical Officer confirmed.
Sources said that the state jails department had marked five special jails at Ludhiana, Bathinda, Barnala and Patti for new inmates in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak. The inmates were kept in the selected jails for fourteen days and then after their COVID test, shifted to the normal jails.
In the non-COVID jails, the inmates are kept separately for another 14 days till a second test is conducted.
"Forty-five inmates had last month come at the special jail in Ludhiana jail who were booked under different offences and were in different cases. Then after COVID test kept for fourteen days quarantined and were also under watch. Out of then, 13 were released as they got bail. The rest 32 were
left and were shifted to the normal jail after their second corona test came negative. In the jail, they were again tested and in that test 26 came positive. All of them were first shifted from the jail to the Ludhiana civil hospital and then from there to a special facility under police protection," said a senior jail department official.
He said that since the outbreak of COVID-19, a few cases were recorded in several jails across the state but not on such a large scale as all the precautionary measures are taken by the jails department
from sanitation to wearing of masks is compulsory for all inmates.
Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) posted at Jandiala Guru near Amritsar and his wife have been told to remain home as their symptoms are mild, a senior police official said.