On August 4, five policemen from the Aluva sub-division, including two women, were tested positive in the antibody test, requiring them to go into quarantine till their swab samples were tested to confirm if they had COVID-19.
Soon, they were taken to a private hospital in Aluva earmarked for quarantining police personnel, only to be told that they could not be admitted, mistaking the antibody positive test result as a confirmation of the infection.
It needed a lot of cajoling and convincing before the hospital allotted three rooms out of the 10 purportedly meant for quarantining police personnel, while the two women officers had to be sent into home quarantine. Fortunately, the swab samples of all five returned negative limiting the far from comfortable stay for three police personnel at the Aluva hospital.
“Though it is claimed that centralised quarantine facilities for cops have been arranged in all the three sub-divisions in Ernakulam Rural, they are woefully inadequate with no proper arrangements for even providing food. This has dealt a severe blow to the morale of the force,” said an officer who is also a member of the Kerala Police Association.
Shortly after the Aluva incident, seven more policemen in the Muvattupuzha sub-division tested positive in the antibody test being conducted for uniformed personnel across the district. A lodge supposed to allocate 15 rooms for quarantining policemen explicitly declined to admit them and eventually allowed two rooms reluctantly for four men, while the remaining three had to be accommodated in another lodge found after a last-minute hunt.
Out of the seven, one from Vazhakkulam eventually tested positive, forcing the quarantining of 14 of his colleagues at the station, though the lodge owner was in no mood to accommodate more. So, despite the direction that cops should only be sent into institutional quarantine even if they can afford home quarantine, three women cops were sent into home quarantine.
“We had to accommodate the rest of the 11 in two different lodges where there was no arrangement for their food on the first day, and fellow cops from nearby areas brought them food from their homes,” said an office-bearer of the Kerala Police Association.
The quarantine facilities at Aluva, Perumbavoor and Muvattupuzha sub-divisions accounting for 44 stations, including traffic stations, are supposed to provide full-fledged facilities for quarantining cops, but in reality the facilities are far from adequate.
