88 cops under home quarantine in Thiruvananthapuram

Thiruvananthapuram: While trying to make people stay indoors due to the outbreak of Covid-19, police officers too have been facing the risk of contracting the disease.
During the past one month, as many as 88 policemen under the city police have gone under home quarantine after coming in primary or secondary contact with people suspected to be carriers of the virus.
Those who have gone into home quarantine include DCP (admin) Mohammed Arif and six others from the City Police Commissioner's office.They are three police officers, including a gunman and driver and three ministerial staff in his office. They had gone into quarantine following the death pf Covid-19 positive patient at Pothencode. A close relative of the deceased is a staff at DCP’s office. The woman had even turned up for work on Monday, a day prior to the death. From Tuesday, the officials went into self isolation. The DCP's office was fumigated following this.
Other quarantined officers include a sub-inspector and a junior sub-inspector. The sub-inspector attached to Thampanoor police station had come in contact with an NRI who had just returned from a Gulf country. From airport he reached Thampanoor and enquired the sub-inspector about availability of trains. Following this, the sub-inspector and two civil police officers who were with him, went into quarantine. The junior sub-inspector attached to Sreekaryam police station went into quarantine along with a few other civil police officers after they helped a group of people, who had preliminary symptoms, to get transport facility to reach their home in Idukki.
City police commissioner Balramkumar Upadhyay said fortunately none of them have been tested positive so far. The officers are being checked periodically for symptoms. “If any of them display any symptoms, we will immediately take measures to provide them better medical care,” he said, adding that the department has sufficient manpower to replace them and hence, their work has not been affected.
“Various other wings in the department have lent us their manpower. This includes the vigilance and anti corruption bureau, city traffic and armed battalions. We have not fielded our entire men on duty. We have kept enough manpower on reserve so that we can last till the end of lockdown period,” Upadhyay said adding that despite so many men being taken off from duty, police have only intensified their vigil. They have opened more checkpoints near city borders to prevent unnecessary roaming by motorists.