One in five prisoners at the largest jail in Kashmir has tested positive for the coronavirus, authorities told Reuters on Friday. Authorities at the central jail in Srinagar said that they were preparing to shift some prisoners after 102 of the 480 tested positive.
“We are taking extra care and all new entrants are being tested and then quarantined for two weeks,” V.K. Singh, Kashmir’s Additional Director General of Prisons, told the international news agency.
On Friday, Kashmir reported 421 new cases of the coronavirus. Among the total, the tally in Srinagar remains the highest with 6680 cases.
India is the world’s third worst-hit country, behind only the United States and Brazil, with more than 2.4 million confirmed coronavirus cases, according to a Reuters tally.
Dr Nisarul Hassan, an associate professor at Srinagar’s Government Medical College, said that resources are stretched. “Our hospitals are full with COVID-19 patients. We are running out of oxygen beds,” he said, “Patients have to wait for ventilators as there are not enough of them.”
