Over 80 Border Security Force (BSF) personnel tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, taking the total number of such cases in the force to 154. Two others have recovered.
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The cases were reported from the units in Delhi, Jodhpur, Kolkata and Ambassa in Tripura.
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A senior BSF official said it had been decided to go in for “aggressive testing” after seven men posted on law and order duty with the Delhi Police tested positive in Jama Masjid Nagar last week.
The official said 30 tested positive in Jodhpur on Wednesday. “Those tested positive in Delhi and Jodhpur belong to the same company or the unit. They were in quarantine already and had been isolated from other units. Most of them were asymptomatic and contracted the infection on operational duty,” the official noted.
In Tripura, more than 40 personnel in a camp at Ambassa along the Bangladesh border got the infection. “The locals in Tripura are comparing the BSF unit to the Nizamuddin markaz in Delhi and accusing them of being the super spreaders. The men were performing their duty when they contracted the infection,” said the official.
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Five personnel who escorted a Central team comprising senior officials in West Bengal have also tested positive. They include personnel who were cancer patients and others suffering from kidney ailments.
In CRPF
The 3.25 lakh strong Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) had reported 158 positive cases, of which have two recovered and one died.
A CRPF official said that since April 21, the force had screened 11,219 personnel and their contacts, of which 3,112 were quarantined. Of the 155 active cases, 152 were being treated in Delhi, two in Noida and one at Kupwara in J&K.
A 55-year-old Sub Inspector, who passed away, was a resident of Barpeta in Assam. He was posted at the force’s unit at Mayur Vihar in East Delhi. Many personnel, including the deceased, were placed in quarantine after a 43-year-old constable, posted as a nursing assistant at the unit, tested positive on April 21.
Forty-five personnel of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and 13 men of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) have tested positive till May 5.