Five people who were arrested and jailed for the violence in Bengaluru’s Padarayanapura ward have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. The five individuals were lodged in the Ramanagara jail along with 116 others who were arrested for the violence on Sunday.
According to a medical bulletin released by the Karnataka Health Department on Friday, the five are patients 449, 450, 452, 453 and 454 and they have also since been isolated at the Victoria Hospital in Bengaluru.
The patients are all male, while P-449 is 30 years old, P-450 is 22, P-452 is 35, P-453 is a 32-year-old and P-452 is 23.
Until now, Ramanagara district adjoining Bengaluru was a green zone with no known case of COVID-19 patients in the district. Ramanagara District Health Officer Manjunath told TNM that the five patients had been shifted to Victoria hospital in Bengaluru.
“There were 17 prisoners inside the jail. A total of 121 people were brought from Padarayanapura. Out of this, 5 people got COVID-19 and were taken to Victoria Hospital. 116 others who were brought in with them will also be shifted to Bengaluru and they will be kept in a quarantine facility. As far as the 17 other prisoners (originally from Ramanagara) are concerned, we will put them in quarantine here,” he told TNM.
When asked if the jail was crowded, Manjunatha claimed that the jail had ensured social distancing.
Violence erupted in Padarayanapura ward in Bengaluru late on Sunday night. Around 10 people from the locality had attended the Tablighi Jamaat conference and had contracted the virus. The violence broke out as officials of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), the police and health department had gone to transfer 58 secondary contacts of COVID-19 patients to a quarantine centre. A section of people had resisted. This had led to the arrests in the next two days.
Lambasting the state government’s decision to transfer the accused in the case to the Ramanagara jail, former Chief Minister and JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy said, “My suspicion is this, who gave the order to the ADGP to shift them to Ramanagara? Why didn't they keep them in Parapanagarahara? This should be investigated.”
He has warned that he will launch a protest against the government if it does not take precautionary measures to safeguard the residents of the district.
He called for the immediate transfer of the patients out of the district and quarantining of other inmates of the jail.