Shifting prisoners could spread COVID-19: Kamal Nath

Bhopal, Apr 13 () Former Madhya Pradesh chiefminister Kamal Nath has expressed concern over shifting ofsome NSA detainees from one district to another despite thelockdown, as some of them later tested positive forcoronavirus.

This could spread the viral disease in otherdistricts, he said.

"It is surprising that while there is lockdown in thestate, many districts are under curfew and their boundariessealed in view of the coronavirus scare and people not beingallowed to move from one district to other, in such a scenariothose detained under NSA in Indore were sent to Satna and theywere found coronavirus positive," Nath tweeted on Sunday.

"This way corona infection will spread in otherdistricts also," he further said in a tweet in Hindi.

Some persons who indulged in stone-pelting andmisbehaviour with health workers and police in Indore wererecently booked under the National Security Act (NSA).

After some of accused under the NSA were shifted outof Indore, two of them tested positive for coronavirus inSatna and one was found infected with the disease in Jabalpur,causing panic in the two districts.

Satna Collector Ajay Katesaria on Sunday said twoprisoners, arrested under NSA in Indore and shifted here,tested positive for coronavirus.

Otherwise, there was no COVID-19 case in Satnadistrict so far, the collector said.

The prisoners who tested positive for coronavirus havebeen shifted to the Rewa-based Medical College and those whocame in contact with them have been quarantined, he said.

As a precautionary measure they were kept in theisolation cells, he added.

The Satna administration has requested the authoritiesconcerned not to send prisoners there from Indore and Bhopal,which have been severely affected by coronavirus.

Jabalpur Collector Bharat Yadav said an NSA detaineeout of four prisoners shifted from Indore to Jabalpur CentralJail tested positive for coronavirus before his admission to alocal jail.

The prisoner has been shifted to a government-runhospital, he said.

The other three NSA detainees have been lodged at anisolation ward in the Jabalpur Central Jail, he said. MASGK GK