Twenty-one police personnel in Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram have tested positive for the coronavirus, from different stations. Fourteen policemen in a Varkala station and six personnel of the Cantonment station near the Secretariat in the city have been diagnosed with COVID-19. In addition, a policeman of the Special Armed Police (SAP), who participated in the Independence Day parade of August 15 has also tested positive for the coronavirus.
As of Monday, 342 policemen across the state have so far tested positive for the novel coronavirus and one has succumbed to the disease. Sub Inspector of Police (Special Branch) Ajithan from Idukki died earlier this month.
There are now 1,838 policemen in quarantine.
Two weeks ago, all the policemen of the Kilimanoor station, which falls in the capital district, had gone into quarantine after three officials there contracted the disease. An accused in a chain-snatching incident had tested positive, following which the policemen also were infected.
Policemen are increasingly susceptible to the coronavirus with a large number of inmates testing positive at the Poojappura central jail in the last few days. As of Monday, 478 person have contracted COVID-19, including 470 prisoners and eight staff of the jail, confirms jail superintendent Nirmalanandan. The spread began after a remand prisoner tested positive last week.
It is not just Thiruvananthapuram. Three days ago Malappuram Superintendent of Police U Abdul Karim tested positive for the virus. He had been under quarantine after his gunman contracted the disease.
Nearly two weeks ago, the state government gave more responsibilities to the police in implementing COVID-19 containment measures. This included mapping containment areas, contact tracing, ensuring quarantine regulations and so on.
Cases in Thiruvananthapuram have been on the rise since the first week of July when clusters were found in coastal areas and two of these were revealed to have community spread. Out of the 1530 fresh cases reported from the state on Sunday, 519 are from Thiruvananthapuram. As on Monday afternoon, there are 3,890 active cases in the district. There have been 34 deaths of COVID-19 patients so far, reported from Thiruvananthapuram.