5 arrested for attack on health workers test positive for COVID-19 in Karnataka

Out of 126 people who had been arrested in connection with the attack on health workers and police in Padarayanapura last week, five have tested positive for coronavirus in jail and consequently shifted to a hospital. All of them were lodged in the district jail in nearby Ramanagara after being remanded to judicial custody.

Bengaluru: Five people among those arrested for the attack on health workers in Padarayanapura here last week have tested positive in a jail and consequently shifted to a hospital, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayan said on Friday.

A total of 126 people had been arrested in connection with the attack on health workers and police in minority-dominated Padarayanapura on April 19 and all of them were lodged in the district jail in nearby Ramanagara after being remanded to judicial custody by court.

"We had tested all the inmates. During screening, five of them were tested positive for COVID-19. All the five have been shifted to the hospital," Narayan told reporters here.

Two of the remand prisoners tested positive late on Thursday and three more on Friday, he said.

Health workers had gone to Padarayanapura for quarantining some people who were the primary and secondary contacts of coronavirus patients from the area when they were thrashed by a violent crowd.

(PTI)