New Delhi: Alarm bells run in the national capital on Saturday when the number of COVID-19 positive cases in a New Delhi-based battalion of India’s largest paramilitary force, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), increased over 10 times to 122 within 24 hours.
The uniformed men, part of CRPF’s 31st battalion, were on duty in Mayur Vihar Phase-III area which was sealed after the a large number of pandemic infection started building up this month.
Nearly 225 CRPF jawans were tested for COVID-19, of which 122 tested positive while results for over 100 more are awaited, a spokesman said.
However, most of these infected men were found asymptomatic and admitted to an isolation facility at Mandoli.
A CRPF sub-inspector of the same unit had died of coronavirus early this week while 12 others had tested positive only yesterday (Friday).
These huge number of positive cases in a single battalion of over 1,000 jawans in a single day triggered concern.
According to preliminary reports, the primary source of infection in this unit could be a nursing assistant who joined this battalion after finishing his leave period at his home here. He was earlier posted in another CRPF battalion deployed in Kupwara of Jammu and Kashmir. But it is yet to be ascertained how he contracted the infection. The family members of this CRPF man had tested negative.
Meanwhile, the pandemic has claimed 1,218 lives and infected nearly 37,350 others in India where over 9,950 patients have also recovered. Globally, the COVID-19 has claimed over 239,000 lives and infected 3.34 million, with 1.05 million recoveries.