SC directs UP govt to file status report on Kanpur shelter home COVID-19 cases

The Supreme Court, referring to news reports that over 50 children in a state-run shelter home in Kanpur contracted COVID-19, on Tuesday directed Uttar Pradesh government to file a status report on the matter.

Earlier, the apex court had taken suo moto cognizance of news reports that 35 children in a government-run home in Chennai's Royapuram had tested positive for coronavirus.

Tamil Nadu government also informed the top court the children in the shelter homes, who tested positive for COVID-19, have been cured and are back in the facility.

At the outset of the hearing, a bench headed by Justice L Nageswara Rao asked Tamil Nadu additional advocate general Balaji Srinivasan whether all the children in the shelter homes had been cured.

Srinivasan replied that all are children are cured and back in the shelter home and no new cases of COVID-19 have been reported.

The bench, hearing a suo motu case related to the protection of children in shelter homes from COVID-19, also appointed advocate Gaurav Aggarwal as the amicus curiae in the matter and listed it for hearing on July 13.

The court also took into note that Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Tripura are yet to file a reply in the case and granted them time till July 10 to file a report regarding COVID-19 cases among children in shelter homes in these states.

The Supreme Court had on June 11 sought a status report from the Tamil Nadu government regarding the spread of COVID-19 in shelter homes and steps taken to safeguard the children.

The court had also sought to know how the children got infected, and whether the top court's earlier orders for protecting children were not observed.

It had also sent a questionnaire to all the states seeking information on the host of issues relating to the protection of children in shelter homes during the pandemic.

-ANI

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