As many as 96 prisoners have tested positive for the novel coronavirus pandemic in district jail Anantnag on Thursday, July 16, ringing alarm bells among the authorities in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Anantnag district jail located in the Mattan area has a place of about 80 inmates but is overcrowded with around 192 prisoners.
The inmates will reportedly be shifted to a makeshift barrack at Kashmir University South Campus near High Ground Anantnag.
Taking to Twitter, senior Kashmir Journalist Ahmed Ali Fayyaz broke the news: "96 prisoners out of 192 at # Kashmir's Anantnag District Jail (Mattan) reported as Covid-19 positive. Being shifted to makeshift barrack at Kashmir University South Campus at High Ground Anantnag. 19 Police officials out of 300 tested at PHQ Covid +ve. Testing goes on."
Massive sanitisation drive at PHQ Srinagar
On Wednesday (July 15), Jammu and Kashmir saw 493 new Covid-19 cases, including children, doctors, and 11 Army personnel besides 18 from police headquarters. The total in the Union Territory till yesterday was 11,666.
A massive sanitisation drive was earlier started at Police headquarters at Srinagar after a police official tested positive for Covid-19. Testing of police staff were carried out at J&K Police Headquarters after an officer turned coronavirus positive.
As per reports, swabs of around 250 to 300 of the PHQ staff were collected for testing in the last two days following which, 19 were Covid positive.
