City police gear up to test 16,000 cops for Covid before winter assembly session

Nagpur: City police have made preparations to test 16,000 cops, many of whom are from units of other districts, before winter assembly commences in Nagpur.
Around eight doctors and five nurses from police hospitals across the state have been requisitioned by city cops to reinforce the medical team at the hospital in police headquarters.
District administration and Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) would also set up camps at different places, like Vidhan Bhavan, Nag Bhavan and Ravi Bhavan to conduct RT-PCR tests.
District collector R Vimala said most government employees are fully vaccinated, and the personnel coming to city for the assembly have also been told to get tested. “Our teams will be positioned in camps at different places where testing facilities would be available. We will conduct as many tests as required,” said the collector. Guidelines are soon expected from the state government, she added.
District health officer Dr Deepak Shelokar said the two government hospitals and AIIMS would be available for isolation facilities. “We are working on our medicine stockpiling and other medical resources. If someone gets infected, treatment facilities will be available,” he said.
City police too, under supervision of police chief (CP) Amitesh Kumar, joint CP Aswati Dorje and DCP Sandeep Pakhale, are trying to to ensure that their 16-bed hospital at the headquarters in Takli is ready to handle any emergency.
Chief medical officer (CMO) at police hospital Dr Sandeep Shinde said tests would be conducted aggressively as soon as the cops start arriving. “We will decide whether to do RT-PCR or antigen tests and start testing the cops at the briefing session, before they proceed to their respective barracks,” said Dr Shinde, adding that cops on security duty of VVIPs or VIPs would be tested after five days of their duty.
Dr Shinde said Remdesivir and Faviflu had been stocked up. “We also have hospitals under police schemes ready to accommodate any cops who fall sick or test positive,” said the city police CMO.