As many as 57 women and minor girls in a government shelter home in Uttar Pradesh's Kanpur district have tested positive for coronavirus, Indian media reported on Monday.

What is more worrying is that among those who have tested positive are five pregnant, including two minor girls. The two pregnant minors include an HIV positive girl. They are being treated in various hospitals in the district.

Speaking to media, Kanpur DM Brahmdev Tiwari said "57 girls have tested positive for Covid-19, which includes five girls found to be pregnant. This includes two minors and one HIV positive patient. They were sent by the Child Welfare Committees from Agra, Etah, Kannauj, Firozabad, Kanpur and were pregnant before they came to the shelter home. These are the cases under the Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences [POCSO] Act. Two other girls who were tested negative are also pregnant. They were also sent by the CWC team of Kanpur".

A week ago, a woman in the government shelter home had tested positive for Covid-19, following which a few more tests were conducted. On June 18, the test results found 33 more girls positive for the virus. Twenty-eight more girls in the shelter home tested positive over the next two days.

A total of seven, including two minors, in the government shelter home in Kanpur, are said to be pregnant and five of them are Covid-19 positive. They are under treatment currently.

Kanpur Commissioner Sudhir Mahadev also said that the girls were brought to the shelter home from various districts in accordance with the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) and were pregnant before they were housed in the shelter home.

The commissioner has, however, said that an investigation will be carried out if any officer or employee is found to be at fault in the matter.

Meanwhile, Congress General-Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has already launched an attack on the UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath government over the matter.

Priyanka Gandhi on Sunday said that the matter shows that facts were being suppressed in the name of investigations at such facilities.