Officials have said of the 92 persons who have tested positive in SRPF till now, most are from the companies which have returned from duties in Mumbai and Malegaon town in Nashik. (Representational)

Maharashtra’s State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) — whose teams have been deployed for lockdown duties in various parts of the state, particularly in most- affected areas — has till now reported a total of 92 personnel testing positive for coronavirus in its units. Meanwhile, the total number of Maharashtra Police personnel who have tested positive reached 250 on Friday.

On Friday, as many as 25 personnel from Group 12 SRPF, located in Hingoli district, tested positive, taking the number of cases in this particular unit to 42. The SRPF units have already put in place elaborate quarantine and isolation measures to avert further infections.

The SRPF, which is the reserved police force under Maharashtra State Police, has 16 separate units called ‘SRPF Groups’ located across the state. Since the lockdown began, between 30 to 40 companies of the SRPF from these 16 groups have been posted in highly-affected regions like Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Pimpri- Chinchwad and Malegaon. One company comprises 100 to 120 personnel, headed by an officer.

Officials have said of the 92 persons who have tested positive in SRPF till now, most are from the companies which have returned from duties in Mumbai and Malegaon town in Nashik.

Archana Tyagi, additional director general of police for Maharashtra SRPF, said, “Till now, 92 personnel from SRPF have tested positive. Most are those who have returned from duties in Mumbai and Malegaon. Upon their return to original units, they had already been quarantined. We are getting their test results now. They have not been allowed to meet their families as a precautionary measure. The dedicated doctors attached with each unit have been conducting regular screenings to check for symptoms among other personnel too. All our group centres have adequate spaces to accommodate the isolated personnel.”

She added, “A major chunk of these 92 are asymptomatic. However, all are under close medical observation and at least three from the Hingoli group have been shifted to Aurangabad for advanced medical care due to some preexisting medical conditions.”

As per the primary data, of the total 92 positive cases in the SRPF, 42 are in Hingoli, at least 29 in Malegaon, nine in Pune and the rest in Mumbai and Thane.

An officer from Maharashtra Police said a team of officials was closely studying the pattern of infections among the cops, especially in the SRPF till now, to identify the reasons and make sure such cases are avoided in the future.

As on Friday evening, at least 250 personnel from Maharashtra Police have tested positive, of whom 30 are officers. Of the 250, 30 have already recovered and three policemen in Mumbai have lost their lives. Most cases have been reported from Mumbai and Thane.

In Pune, police have already been following certain norms, such that police staff with known medical conditions are not being assigned any strenuous ground duty with possibility of coming into contact with public. A pictorial advisory, on what steps have to be taken after a police personnel goes home, has been issued and strict adherence to it has been ordered. The prescribed drill also gives detailed guidelines about conduct while in the house.