Covid-19: Five of 126 arrested for attacking quarantine team in Bengaluru test positive
Karnataka has reported 463 cases of the coronavirus and 18 deaths, according to the state government.
Five people, who were among the 126 persons arrested for attacking health workers in Bengaluru’s Padarayanapura area last week, have tested positive for Covid-19 in jail, PTI reported on Friday.
On April 19, health officials were attacked in the Padarayanapura area, when they had gone to shift some residents to a quarantine facility. Several Covid-19 cases had been reported from the locality and the area had been sealed to contain the spread of infection.
Health officials had sent several primary contacts of three Covid-19 patients in the locality to quarantine but came back to move the patients’ secondary contacts. As the officials reached the area, around 200 people gathered and and tried to remove barricades erected near the entry and exit points to argue with the officials.
Some videos showed the local residents damaging tents installed for healthcare workers and policemen. Eventually, the team had to leave without taking 33 of the 58 people to the isolation units.
The people arrested for the attack were sent to the district jail in Ramanagara, close to Padarayanapura, after being remanded to judicial custody by a court.
“We had tested all the inmates,” Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister CN Ashwath Narayan told reporters in Bengaluru, according to PTI. “During screening, five of them were tested positive for Covid-19. All the five have been shifted to a hospital.”
Narayan added that two of the prisoners tested positive for Covid-19 late on Thursday, while three others were found to have contracted the infection on Friday.
On Friday, a slum in Bengaluru was partially sealed after 10 positive cases emerged from there over the last two days, NDTV reported. Karnataka has reported 463 cases of the coronavirus and 18 deaths, according to the state government.