Days after a 55-year-old Sub Inspector of the CRPF died of COVID-19, as many as 135 personnel from the same unit have tested positive to the virus.
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In all, 480 personnel were tested, 323 tested negative and the results of 22 are awaited. The entire unit at Mayur Vihar in east Delhi has been quarantined at a Delhi government facility in Mandoli and an enquiry has been ordered to study the lapses that led to the infection spreading among such a large number of the force.
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On April 28, Sub Inspector Mohd. Ikram Hussain died at the Safdarjung Hospital. This was the first such death reported in the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF), comprising the CRPF, the Border Security Force, the CISF, the ITBP, the SSB and the Assam Rifles.
The deceased SI, a diabetic, was a resident of Barpeta in Assam.
Constable tests positive first
Many personnel, including the deceased, were put in quarantine after a 43-year-old constable posted as a nursing assistant tested COVID-19 positive on April 21.
The constable, posted in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kupwara, was on leave and living in Noida. Due to the lockdown, he joined the medical unit of the CRPF in Mayur Vihar, close to his local base on April 6 after his leave ended. He developed some symptoms on April 17 and a test confirmed the infection on April 21, an official said. He was admitted to the Rajiv Gandhi Hospital. It was not clear how he contracted the infection.
