Three returnees housed in a government quarantine centre (QC) at Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV) Jalukie-B, sneaked out but were later caught and transferred to police quarantine/detention facility for violating quarantine protocols.
In the first incident, that happened on June 20, a returnee who was lodged in one of the JNV quarantine blocks under “containment”, was caught by police when he sneaked out to buy some items from a shop.
It was learnt that the inmate had met one of his friends outside the facility. The inmate, along with his friend, was later taken to the police quarantine facility.
In another incident, on June 21, two more inmates of one of the non-containment JNV quarantine blocks had sneaked out to get “home food”. However, when some youth volunteers discovered the duo, they were warned to return to the QC. Sources said the duo had come in contact with two other persons outside the QC and the latter were sent to the community quarantine facility while the duo who sneaked out, were shifted to police quarantine facility.
When contacted, police and district officials confirmed the incidents. They said the first case involved a returnee sneaking out from a block that was under “containment zone” and the other two were from another block of JNV QC.
There have been reports of unruly behaviour of some among the thousands of returnees presently quarantined at various facilities throughout the state over quality of food, accommodation and enforcement of rules under Standard Operating Procedures.
The state government has spent a huge amount as financial assistance to the returnees while some who chose to remain and not return were paid Rs.10,000 each. In addition, the government arranged for travel back home and also the food and lodging facilities at various facilities. Social media is rife with clips of unruly returnees protesting against being confined inside the facilities. There are also reports that returnees often slip out of the quarantine centres, to either roam around or shop.
This has led to deep concern among many people who fear that such occurrences could only lead to a critical stage of community transmission.