Berhampur: The Berhampur Circle Jail here has turned into a COVID-19 hotbed with 10 staff, including the jailor, and 33 more prisoners testing positive for the virus on Wednesday.
While the staff members have been asked to undergo home quarantine, the infected prisoners are being kept in isolation on the jail campus. They are all asymptomatic.
DIG Raghunath Majhi said the CDMO has assured the Jail Superintendent to send doctors to the jail for regular health checkup of the COVID-19 patients.
According to sources, swab samples of 50 prisoners and 92 staff of the jail were collected for COVID-19 test on July 19 and the results of 43 came out to be positive.
On June 6, six jail inmates had tested positive for the virus and the number rose to 10 with four getting infected between June 22 and 24. Cases kept pouring in and the number increased to 17 by July 12.
To ensure social distancing, 300 of the total 743 prisoners were earlier released through interim bails while 50 more convicts were shifted to Digaphandi jail.
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