Just over two percent of Mumbai police personnel between the age 45-55 have tested positive in antigen tests conducted recently for police personnel along with 4000 civic workers. “We have tested 4212 police personnel between the age group 45-55 and of them 90 have been tested positive,” said Naval Bajaj, Joint Commissioner of Police.
The test results are unexpectedly low for the city police who are enforcing the lockdown measures across the city from last four months. As a precautionary measure, police personnel had been given anti-malarial tablet HCQS and had been asked to follow all the necessary guidelines while maintaining the lockdown norms.
So far the Mumbai police have lost 55 police personnel to Covid19 with mortality rate of 1.34. Over 3865 police personnel so far contracted the virus however as on Wednesday 3156 police personnel have successfully recovered from the disease.
To help in early detection of Covid-19 among the front line workers the civic authority conducted the testes for police personnel and civic workers. The positive result of the antigen test indicates exposure to coronavirus and results come within 30 minutes, however, they are less accurate but cheap, as compared to RT-PCR test kits.
The antigen test reports came on Thursday when the state police recorded its 100th death owing to Covid-19. As per the latest figures 9096 police personnel including 937 police officers across the state have contracted the virus out of the 7084 police personnel including 722 police officers have successfully recovered from the disease so far. In last 24 hours the state police have recorded 138 fresh corona positive cases.
A police head constable Bharat Patil attached to Navghar police station in Mulund became the latest casualty form the city police, Patil died of Covid-19 on Tuesday afternoon after battling the virus for 19 days, he was admitted to Gurunanak hospital in Bandra in the second week of July. According to the police, Patil a resident of Dombivli was diabetic and is survived by his wife and two sons. A 39-year-old police constable Dilip Bagul too died of Covid-19 on Tuesday. He was attached to the Vishnu Nagar police station in Thane. Bagul was on duty until he was tested positive for the virus. After complaining of difficulty in breathing Bagul was admitted to a hospital on July 25. A resident of Kopar Bagul is survived by his wife and two children.
