Punjab sets up 20 more Covid-19 quarantine centres for police personnel

CHANDIGARH: Punjab Police continue to strengthen safety and welfare measures for their staff on frontline duty against the battle against novel coronavirus by adding 20 district quarantine centres for them.
With addition of these, the total number of quarantine centres in state has gone up to 78. So far, eight police personnel out of 16 tested positive for Covid-19, have been discharged after getting cured.
Sharing details on the quarantined police personnel, DGP Dinkar Gupta said a total of 190 cops from district police (110) and armed police (80) are currently in quarantine at the district quarantine centres set up by the department, after coming in contact with infected persons while on duty. Another 90 district police personnel and 69 armed police personnel are under home quarantine, taking the total number of cops in quarantine to 349.
To ensure strict adherence of protocols and proper care of cops at the quarantine centres, close coordination is being maintained with police nodal officers of the districts and doctors, said the DGP. The welfare wing receives information from the nodal officers regarding health updates on quarantined personnel every day, while advisories issued by the department of health of Punjab and WHO regarding Covid-19 is circulated to all the quarantined cops.
DGP said an analysis of the quarantined police personnel and those tested positive revealed that 16 cops had to undergo quarantine as they were primary contacts of police officials tested positive, while 150 cops were primary contacts of accused persons who were brought for interrogation and had thereafter tested positive.
A nodal officer from the police department has been appointed in each districts /unit to monitor the health of all those who are under quarantine or at the hospital isolation centers.
The welfare wing has written to all districts and armed police units to withdraw police personnel who are suffering from chronic medical problems like blood pressure, diabetes and other respiratory problems from frontline duties, and also those above 55 years of age and suffering from chronic medical problems, based on the information of 2019 annual medical examination of the police personnel.