Covid-19 second wave: 68 cops died in April in Maharashtra

A total of 68 police personnel from the Maharashtra Police department died of Covid-19 in April as the state saw the pandemic’s second wave. The toll in April assumes significance as an equal number of cops had succumbed to the virus in the past five months.

In the past four days, total 20 cops died of Covid-19. Of these, four were from Mumbai, three from Ahmednagar, one each from the Special Investigation Department (SID) Mumbai, Thane, Thane rural, Pune city, Pune rural, Pune railway, Nashik rural, Osmanabad, Beed, Hingoli, Chandrapur, Gadchiroli and Gondia.

Confirming the development, Sanjeev Singhal, additional director general (ADG), administration, Maharashtra Police said, “We have observed that vaccination has been effective in decreasing the infection’s impact on our personnel. Hence, we are trying our best to get all our men vaccinated as soon as possible.”

From March 22 last year till May 1 2021, total 422 police personnel died of Covid-19 in the state police and around 10 percent of them got infected while they were not on duty. Cops, who get infected during leave for 14 days, are not considered to be “on duty”.

“Many cops have also died due to their prevailing health conditions or comorbidities. We cannot say that all of them died as they were infected by Covid-19,” said a senior Maharashtra Police official.

At 87, the highest toll was seen in September last year when the Covid-19 cases had peaked. Total 55 and 38 deaths were reported in August and October 2020, respectively. A downward spike was seen from November last year till March this year when total 68 cops died but the death toll saw a sharp spike with 68 deaths in April.

Total 3,811 personnel are currently infected by Covid-19 in the state police. Of them, 165 tested positive on Friday and including 52 cops who took the first dose and 34 cops who took the second dose.

Singhal added, “Excluding Mumbai, of 1.5 lakh people in our force, more than 1.3 lakh have got the first dose. Over 74,000 have taken the second dose.”

Chaitanya S, DCP (ops) and PRO, Mumbai Police, said, “About 33,061 personnel have received the first dose, and of them, 20,964 have received the second dose.”