2 min readPuneMay 18, 2020 03:10 PM IST
First published on: May 18, 2020 at 03:08 PM IST
The COVID-19 cases among the Maharashtra Police have seen a worrying rate of rise.
As the number of COVID-19 positive cases in Maharashtra crossed 33,000 as of Monday morning, the number of positive cases in Maharashtra Police reached 1,273 with 11 having lost their lives to the viral disease.
According to the numbers shared by officials from the Maharashtra Police headquarters, among the 1,273 cases, 131 are officers and 1142 are constables. Of these, a total of 291 — 34 officers and 257 constables — have recovered. A majority of these cases are local police personnel from Mumbai, Thane and Malegaon or personnel of the State Reserved Police Force (SRPF) who were deployed in these high-risk areas and later repatriated to their home units.
As of Monday morning, the count in the SRPF personnel was 384. Most of these cases are of the companies of the SRPF deployed in Mumbai and Malegaon have gone back to their unit’s headquarters in Hingoli, Aurangabad and Jalna district of Maharashtra.
The Indian Express had reported last week that as a precautionary measure for the two-lakh strong police force, around 23,000 police personnel, aged between 50 and 55, are being given low-risk police station tasks while 12,000 others, who are above 55, have been asked to stay home. A large chunk of police personnel who are first contacts of COVID positive policemen are in quarantine.
The state government had last week asked the Union Home Ministry to deploy 20 companies of the Central Armed Police Force to augment the police deployment in the state. The allocation and deployment of these additional central forces has already started.
The COVID-19 cases among the Maharashtra Police have seen a worrying rate of rise. On May 2, the count was 342 and on May 8 it reached 618. It crossed 1000-mark on May 14. The 11 cops who have succumbed to the disease till now include one officer and 10 constables.
Officials have maintained that an analysis has been conducted into how such a large number of police personnel have tested positive till now. Separate quarantine or isolation facilities and hospitals have been earmarked for police at various places in the state.
The COVID-19 cases among the Maharashtra Police have seen a worrying rate of rise.
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