Kerala DG of Prisons issues directives, to set up isolation cells in jails for COVID-19

In the wake of the Coronavirus outbreak, Kerala's Director General of Prisons, Rishi Raj Singh on Tuesday has issued a directive to set up isolation cells in the jails across the state. This directive comes after six more cases have been detected in Kerala. 

According to the directions, prisoners with symptoms like fever and cold will be moved to the isolation rooms. According to reports, the new inmates will be admitted to jail and will be lodged for six days in specially set up rooms in the admission block. Along with it, the jail authorities will be lodging the prisoners who come back after parole in a separate room in the admission block.

Meanwhile, the Kerala administration is strengthening its surveillance, stated Kerala Health Minister KK Shailaja. Speaking to the media, she said, "In Pathanamthitta, we began the contact tracing at around 6 am. 270 persons are under the primary contact of positive patients. The number of high-risk contacts are 95. 6 people have come to hospitals in Pathanamthitta. The number of secondary contacts is 449."

India's Coronavirus count rises 

The number of Coronavirus cases in India soared up to 47 with seven more persons testing positive since Sunday, including a three-year-old child. The new cases emerged from Kerala, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu, and two from Pune. Apart from this, 15 people are under observation for the virus in Maharashtra. 

Read: Gujarat Congress postpones its Gandhi Sandesh Yatra amid Coronavirus concerns

Novel Coronavirus outbreak

According to the latest reports, has claimed more than 4,000 lives across the globe and has infected over 110,000 people around the world since it first broke out in December 2019. While most of the cases are from Hubei province of China and the city of Wuhan (the epicentre of the outbreak), other countries including Iran, Italy, Japan and the Philippines have also reported deaths related to novel coronavirus.

Read: 58 Indian pilgrims airlifted from Iran amidst Coronavirus outbreak, EAM Jaishankar tweets

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Monday has declared COVID-19 a 'pandemic' as the virus continues to spread worldwide. First detected in the city of Wuhan, in Hubei Province of China, the virus outbreak has now spread across 20 countries since December 2019. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has dubbed the virus as COVID-19. 

Read: White House says Trump not tested for coronavirus due to lack of symptoms

Read: Kerala tracing contacts of more people after six COVID-19 cases confirmed in state

(with inputs from ANI)