Chapra (Bihar), April 21 (PTI): Out of 19 coronavirus positive inmates of a remand home who had escaped from the hospital isolation ward, 15 have been located and search is on for the others, Superintendent of Police Santosh Kumar said on Wednesday.
All of them had escaped Tuesday night out of fear of the disease, the SP told PTI.
Of them 11 who hailed from the Saran district, of which Chapra is the headquarter, have been found at their home, he said, adding the rest 8 were from the neighbouring districts and among them four have been tracked.
Among 11 locals, guardians of six have said they would bring back their ward to the sadar hospital.
The rest preferred to stay in home isolation and they will be under watch of the concerned police stations, the SP said.
After clinical examination of all 39 juveniles of a local remand home here , 19 had tested positive on Monday and they were put up in a quarantine centre of the sadar hospital.
All 19 escaped after removing iron roads of the window of the isolation ward.
The SP said he himself visited the centre during the day and found that policemen on duty there did not had access to the ward on the first floor of the building in the rear side of the campus.
"Taking lessons from the event now it has been decided that all those returning to the hospital will be quarantined in an another building under watch of the policemen", the SP said.
The SP said the juveniles in the age category of 14 to 18 had run away out of panic after they were found infected.
They either reached their own home or that of some kin.
Bihar is also experiencing second surge of coronavirus.
As per the last health bulletin, total 10,455 new cases were recorded from across the state Tuesday while 51 had succumbed to the disease.
Among the fresh cases, Saran district accounted for 530 infections.
