Coronavirus-19-positive arrestees would be sent to Covid healthcare facilities before being lodged in jails, a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) issued by the State Home Department has stated.
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 and tested by Medical Officers for Covid-19 along with the mandatory medical examination in a designated hospital. The Medical Officer of the designated hospital shall conduct a thorough examination of the 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 a Covid Care Centre/Covid Health Centre/Covid Hospital by the concerned remanding agencies for treatment with the permission of remanding courts. They shall 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 the concerned district jails/sub-jails within the same revenue district (in case of overcrowding of any particular jail), the SOP added.