15 more Ponda cops are COVID positive

NT NETWORK

Ponda

A day after three cops of the Ponda police station tested positive for coronavirus, 15 more police personnel of the same station tested positive on Thursday, taking the total number of cases to 18.

Throat swab samples of some other 150 people from the force came negative.

It must be noted here that five residents of Ponda also tested positive for the pandemic on Thursday.

Medical superintendent at the sub-district hospital-Ponda Dr Vikas Kuvelkar said that on Thursday around 120 more people, including police personnel from various outposts in Ponda taluka, their family members and close acquaintances, underwent the COVID test. The test results are awaited.

On Wednesday, three police personnel from the Ponda police station – a police inspector and two constables – had tested positive for the COVID pandemic.

The 15 COVID positive cops include home guards, police constables, women police constables, hawaldars and one newly-recruited police sub-inspector. 

Confirming that the police personnel tested positive for the virus, Ponda DySP Nelson Albuquerque said that the police personnel of all ranks have been affected by the coronavirus pandemic, and that   the   infected people have been moved to COVID care centres.

Valpoi police inspector Sagar Ekoskar has been given charge of the Ponda police station, following the Ponda PI testing positive for the deadly virus.

The functioning of the police station resumed on Thursday afternoon after it was sanitised in the morning:  the personnel   who tested negative rose to the occasion.

DIG Parmaditya and South Goa SP Pankaj Kumar Singh visited the police station on Thursday, taking stock of the situation. They held a meeting with the staff, briefing them on coronavirus.