17 Punjab cops have tested +ve since June 1

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 13

A total of 17 police personnel have tested positive during random sampling of 7,165 staffers posted in police stations and frontline duties. A special RT-PCR Covid testing drive was ordered by DGP Dinkar Gupta amid apprehensions of a spike in cases.

This translates into around 0.9 per cent positive cases of the total samples from the police force, as compared to the average of 2 per cent positive cases for the entire state, said Gupta, pointing out that the state’s higher percentage among general population was understandable since testing of citizens was normally carried out either for symptomatic individuals or for their contacts in contrast to the random exercise for asymptomatic police personnel.

Nearly 48,000 police personnel have been working on the frontline for the last three months.

The DGP said of the 17 positive cases, 14 belonged to district police, two (including a cook) were from state armed police/Indian Reserve Battalion (IRB) and one from Punjab Home Guards (PHG). Sangrur has reported the maximum number of positive cases, said the DGP.

While 1,868 of the 7,165 samples collected till June 12 had tested negative, the results for 5,280 were pending, said Gupta, adding that the sampling process started on June 1, and efforts were being made to test a maximum number of police personnel posted in police stations and high-risk areas. He further said all infected cops were in isolation, either in civil hospitals or in the Covid care centres established by the Health Department.

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