247 Prisoners In Rajahmundry Central Jail Test Positive For COVID-19

RAJAHMUNDRY: A total of 265 people in Rajahmundry Central Jail have tested positive for COVID-19 till Friday, August 7. As a precautionary measure, Rajahmundry collector Muralidhar Reddy has ordered jail authorities to conduct COVID-19 tests on prisoners, following which samples of 900 prisoners were sent for coronavirus tests on August 3.

The results which arrived today confirmed that 247 prisoners were infected with the virus.

Earlier on August 1, COVID-19 tests were conducted on 75 people out of which 24 prison staff and 9 prisoners tested positive for the virus. A total of 64 samples were tested on August 2, where nine prisoners were found infected with coronavirus. There are currently 1,675  prisoners in the jail, out of which 265 prisoners tested positive for COVID-19. A total of 24 prison staff who tested positive were being treated in home quarantine.

The jail officials arranged treatment facilities for the 18 prisoners who tested positive on August 1 and August 2, in GSL Hospital. One of them had escaped from the hospital. Later, GSL hospital management discharged all prisoners and the jail authorities released eight prisoners on bail and the rest 10 were being treated at Rajahmundry Government Hospital.

Superintendent S Rajarao said that if 247 prisoners who were found positive in the tests conducted on August 3 were to be shifted to an outpatient hospital, there would be a security problem, so to avoid that a large number of beds will be arranged in the central jail for treatment.