Phagwara police station, CID office sealed as seven test COVID-19 positive

Ashok Kaura
Phagwara, June 20

The Phagwara police station and CID office were sealed on Saturday as seven people tested COVID-19 positive. The Sub-Divisional Magistrate of Phagwara, Pawitra Singh, ordered the premises to be sealed. 

The Station House Officer City, his gunman, his driver, one constable, an industrialist of local Hargobind Nagar, and a local of New Patel Nagar and a villager from Bhularai village are the five people who tested COVID-19 positive.   

Assistant District Commissioner cum Municipal Corporation Commissioner Phagwara, Rajeev Verma in conversation with The Tribune confirmed that 42 policemen, including CID employees, and all close contacts of the positive patients—including their family members—have been quarantined.   

Their samples have been collected for COVID-19 testing. 

Out of the five infections, four have been home quarantined. The fifth case—an industrialist—has been sent to a hospital in Jalandhar.

The close contacts were advised to self-quarantine. 

ADC Verma also ordered an immediate sanitization of the police station, Hargobind Nagar locality, village Bhularai and New Patel Nagar.

Superintendent of Police Phagwara, Manwinder Singh, who rushed to the city police station for boosting the morale of the cops, told the correspondent that Senior Superintendent of Police Kapurthala, Satinder Singh, has appointed inspector Malkiat Ram as in-charge of Police Control Room (PCR) Phagwara as the officiating city police station SHO till the recovery of the current SHO. 

Now, the city police station would be operational from PCR office at Banga Road.

However, the medical examination and the test of their close contacts and other policemen in the police station was also being taken. 

Deputy Commissioner Kapurthala Deepti Uppal has instructed all the employees and officers of all the departments to take preventive measures while performing their duties.

.The policemen, along with the health staff, are among the frontline warriors. 

Besides performing their duties at checkpoints on city roads and chowks, the policemen were also working in the police stations for day-to-day public dealings. 

Therefore, they are also at risk of contracting the deadly virus which has claimed thousands of lives across the world.

There is panic among cops who have been working day and night fighting the coronavirus. 

The COVID-19 pandemic is close to reaching the community transmission stage, and the police have no clue if the person coming to the police station is infected or not.  

“All we can do is to take precautions and measures to control its spread,” said a police official.