Delhi Police Covid helpline gets 1,500 calls less than a day after launch

In less than 24 hours of its launch, the Delhi Police Covid helpline attended to 1,500 calls from people across the city enquiring about the weekend lockdown and night curfew.

Police said the 24×7 helpline was set up at the Delhi Police Headquarters on Friday so that police can resolve issues faced by the public. A senior police officer said, “Despite public guidelines and announcements, we noticed a lot of people had doubts about the curfew. We thought it’s best if we set up a helpline and resolve such issues.”

The helpline number – 011-23469900 – has 10 lines that connect people to police personnel from “specialised” units like Operation, PHQ and district officials.

Chinmoy Biswal, Delhi Police PRO, said the helpline was launched around 8 pm on Friday and since then, they have received over 1,500 calls till Saturday afternoon. “All the calls were attended to. A majority of the calls were related to what’s allowed and what’s not allowed during the day and night curfew. Some people also wanted to know about how to get to hospitals and testing centres while some had issues in getting e-passes. Complaints that were serious in nature were forwarded to district officers,” he said.

In addition to the Covid helpline, personnel are helping people from Delhi and other states get access to vaccines and other medical services. Assistant Commissioner of Police (Preet Vihar) Virender Punj helped admit a man at Shanti Mukund Hospital in East Delhi and also provided the patient with Remdesivir. “The patient, Paras Chand, was in dire need of the medicine but it wasn’t available at the hospital. ACP Punj, who worked at a chemist shop in his childhood, called up his friends and arranged two injections for Chand,” said police.

In Central Delhi’s Rajinder Nagar, a student, Partiksha, who lived alone and contracted Covid this week was also helped by police. “She was infected with the virus and unable to walk. She sent messages to the ACP in Karol Bagh to help her. We sent our beat constable Narendra and provided her with medicines and food. Beat staff is looking after her now,” said police.