Coronavirus crisis: 43 inmates of Muzaffarnagar jails test positive for COVID-19

Muzaffarnagar, Sep 8: As many as forty-three inmates of two jails in Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar district have tested positive for the novel coronavirus and were moved to isolation wards in the prison complexes, officials said on Tuesday.

The fresh infections, 22 in the district jail and 21 in a temporary jail, took the number of infected jail inmates in the district to 400, they said. So far, 210 inmates of the district jail and 190 in the temporary jail have tested positive for COVID-19, they said.

According to district jail superintendent Kamlesh Singh, the prison houses more than 2,700 inmates. In view of rising cases of COVID-19 in jails, the state prison authorities have decided to establish isolation wards in all district and temporary jails.

Additional district magistrate of Muzaffarnagar Amit Singh said they have set up isolation wards in the district and temporary jails and moved the infected inmates there.

Meanwhile, the number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in India surpassed 4.28 million on Tuesday, a day after a record one-day jump of over 90,000 infections that pushed the country to the second spot in the world, Union health ministry data showed.

India's COVID-19 tally is now only behind the United States that has 6,300,727 confirmed cases and is followed by Brazil with 4,147,794 cases.

On Tuesday, as many as 8,83,697 cases are active while the viral disease has claimed 72,775 lives, according to the latest figures released by the Union health ministry. The mounting figures continue to be led by Maharashtra with 236,208 active cases, followed by Andhra Pradesh with 23,6208 cases and Karnataka with 99,285 cases.