Odisha: COVID positive arrestees to be sent to hospitals before jail

Bhubaneswar: COVID-19 positive arrestees will be sent to COVID healthcare facilities before being lodged in jail, a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) issued by the Home Department of the Odisha Government said.

The SOP also said that any person to be produced before a magistrate for remand by the Police/ Excise/Forest/Vigilance authorities etc. shall first be screened/tested by Medical Officers for Covid-19 along with the mandatory medical examination in a designated hospital. Medical Officer of the designated hospital shall conduct a thorough examination of those persons proposed to be remanded to jails and shall record that the person is asymptomatic or symptomatic to Covid-19.

Anybody found positive in this process, should be sent to the COVID Care Center/COVID Health Center/COVID Hospital by the concerned remanding agencies for treatment with the permission of remanding courts. They will be shifted to the jails after recovery.

Only asymptomatic accused persons (to be declared by the Medical Officer of the designated hospital) shall be remanded to jails after being tested with Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) and found “Negative”. All newly remanded persons having Covid-19 negative reports shall be kept in prisons in isolation wards/quarantine wards in concerned district jails/sub-jails within the same Revenue District (in case of overcrowding of any particular jail), the SOP said.