Meanwhile, Poonam Kapoor, a member of the UP State Women’s Commission, told reporters that the girls were probably infected with coronavirus after shelter home staff visited a Kanpur hospital with two girls and came into contact with COVID-19 patients.
A health official prepares to test a swab sample at a free temporary COVID-19 testing facility. (Photo: AFP)
Fifty-seven girls at a state-run children’s shelter home in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur district have tested positive for Coronavirus, with five of them found to be pregnant, an administration official said on Sunday.
Two other girls in the shelter home, who are also pregnant, have tested negative for the virus.
The five pregnant girls, who have been found COVID-19 positive, were referred by the Child Welfare Committees of Agra, Etah, Kannauj, Firozabad and Kanpur under the POCSO Act.
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Meanwhile, Poonam Kapoor, a member of the UP State Women’s Commission, told reporters that the girls were probably infected with coronavirus after shelter home staff visited a Kanpur hospital with two girls and came into contact with COVID-19 patients.
The 57 inmates of the shelter home who have tested positive during the past one week have been quarantined and are being treated. Most of them are asymptomatic. The shelter home is being sanitised.
Earlier, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, in a Facebook post, had attacked the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh over media reports about the girls being found pregnant at the shelter home.
“The entire story of the Muzaffarpur shelter home case is in front of the country. Such a case had also come to light in Deoria in UP,” Priyanka Gandhi said.
In this scenario, such an incident again coming out shows that everything is suppressed in the name of investigations, but very inhuman incidents are taking place in government child protection homes, she said.
Meanwhile, District Magistrate Brahma Dev Tiwari has slammed a section of media for attempting to sensationalise the issue by distorting facts.
(With agency inputs)
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