The recent spate of protest marches organised by opposition political outfits against the State government seem to have dealt a deadly blow to the police force in the city that was already reeling under their frontier role in the fight against the pandemic.
Since the protests erupted, an inspector and an assistant sub-inspector at Palarivattom station and a sub-inspector and two civil police officers at the Central station have tested positive for SARS-COV-2, sending in its wake nearly 50 of their colleagues into quarantine, and severely crippling the functioning of both the stations. The infected were part of the police contingent roped in from various stations within Ernakulam sub division for law-and-order maintenance in connection with protests.
Among the quarantined was Ernakulam Assistant Commissioner K. Laljy who was in close contact with the infected inspector during three protest marches in as many days. If that wasn’t enough, his driver also turned positive, making him a high-risk primary contact.
Discontent is brewing among the force about the unfairness of being made to fight at two fronts simultaneously during the current fluid situation. “These protesters are literally playing with the lives of police personnel. Why is the court not interfering and banning these protests when pandemic cases are surging. In fact, Section 144 should be declared, if need be, against such unlawful assemblies,” fumed a senior police officer.
The Kerala Police Association lamented that the protests and consequent health risks sabotaged COVID control activities of the police. Things may soon reach a situation where the police will have to be withdrawn from COVID-related duties in the face of law-and -order challenges.
“Even now, only the high-risk primary contacts alone among the police personnel are being quarantined while others who have had fleeting contacts with those eventually tested positive continue to be on duty and hence under considerable mental stress,” said N.V. Nishad, district secretary (Kochi city) of the association.
He lamented how the majority of protesters openly flouted COVID protocol by not wearing masks and not keeping physical distance, making themselves and police personnel highly vulnerable. “They must realise that police personnel are also human beings and have families, including children and aged ones, back at home and it is traumatic to return home from a protest scene uncertain whether they have contracted the virus or not,” Mr. Nishad said.