With a steady increase in the number of COVID-19 infections among police personnel and their family members, the Tamil Nadu Police have established a round-the-clock ‘Health Care Control Centre’ for uniformed personnel, ministerial staff and their family members at the police headquarters here.
In a note to senior police officers across the State, Director-General of Police J.K. Tripathy said liaison officers nominated in all cities/districts should update information in case police personnel, ministerial staff or their family members tested positive for COVID-19, and also share details of hospitals COVID-19 care centres. A software www.ppts.tncovid19.org has been created to update details online.
Personal attention
Mr. Tripathy directed officers to ensure proper care and medical attention to those infected with COVID-19. “Kindly pay personal attention in the interest of the welfare of our personnel,” he said in the note.
A couple of months ago, the State police created a ‘healthy standby force’ by allowing 25% of its strength, about 25,000 police personnel in different ranks, to stay at home. The move followed guidelines of the National Disaster Management Agency and the Ministry of Home Affairs to have a stand-by force ready in the wake of COVID-19 for deployment during emergencies.
Last month, the State government had announced that all categories of officials belonging to the Health & Family Welfare Department, Revenue & Disaster Management, Police, Sanitary & Conservancy Employees of Rural/Urban local bodies, dealing with prevention work and departments who were directly involved in COVID-19 prevention, identification, quarantine and treatment activities etc would be provided with free treatment for confirmed COVID-19 positive cases needing hospital based treatment in government or private institutions and also provided with ex-gratia of ₹2 lakh.
In a related development, Marulamarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam general secretary, Vaiko, in a statement has urged the State government to expedite the disbursement of ₹2 lakh ex-gratia to 600-odd police personnel who have tested positive for COVID-19.
