MUMBAI: Mumbai
police which was among the hardest hit by
Covid-19 has
shut down the last dedicated
Covid care centre (CCC) at Kalina after a steady decline in case count and fatalities among the force. There were a total of four dedicated CCCs for the police. City police will be among the frontline workers to get vaccinated after healthcare workers.
While the city lost 98 personnel and the state lost 322 to the pandemic,
infections started dropping in November-December last year. “We shut down the last CCC at Kalina in December as the infection among personnel has gone down and only three or four cases are reported per day. Most of them are getting treated at
Seven Hills Hospital,” said Rajkumar Watkar, joint commissioner of police (administration). In September, the department had closed two CCCs at
Marol,
Andheri, and at the police gymkhana at Marine Drive.
A senior police official said the infection rates in the force were high during May-June when the virus was at its peak, but the department acted proactively to mitigate the impact of the virus. Some of the measures included giving policemen over the age of 50 years indoor duties, and asking those above the age of 55 to proceed on leave. For those on duty, protein supplements were provided, besides adding immunity-boosting food to their diet. They were started on preventive doses of Vitamin C and D, homeopathy medicines and hydroxychloroquine. “Medicines like Remdesivir, Tocilizumab helped those who had contracted the infection with recovery. Also, being on the field most of them developed antibodies to fight the virus,” said an IPS officer.
Meanwhile, police personnel will get vaccine shots after the immunisation rounds of healthcare workers end by March. So far, no doubts have been raised about the efficacy of the vaccine or side-effects among the police force, added the officer.
Mumbai police PRO DCP S Chaitanya said, “We have sent the details of our personnel for registration to the civic body, which will do the further processing, including setting up the priority list.”