As many as 21 policemen in southern Kashmir’s Kulgam district tested positive for Covid19 on Thursday.
All of them are posted in district police lines (DPL) Kulgam but, according to officials, had already been separated.
“They have been all camped at the reserve camp in higher secondary school Chawalgam since March 18,” Superintendent of Police Kulgam Gurinder Pal Singh told the Greater Kashmir.
He said the camp was set up in the wake of Covid19 pandemic as part of measures to prevent the spread of infection.
“We have tested all the cops there and those who are positive for infection have been put in isolation facilities now,” SP said.
The testing was done after one of their colleagues tested positive for infection a few days back.
Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Kulgam Dr. Fazil Kochak said the tests were done by the health authorities following instructions from the district police.
“One cop had tested positive earlier. Later on we tested 62 more cops who had contacts with him,” he said.
CMO said 20 of those samples returned positive today, thus taking the number to 21.
As many as 78 cops in District Police Lines Anantnag, among them an SP rank commandant of IRP, have already tested positive for the virus.
An SPO posted there had tested positive after being tested by the health authorities at his native village early this month.
He had contracted the infection from his brother who had arrived from Jammu.
Later, during a screening last week, eight personnel and wife of a cop tested positive. Another 14 tested positive the next day. All of them were from district police.
In another screening, 55 cops from IR-11 armed reserve police battalion tested positive. The SP rank deputy commandant was also among the positive cases.