Mumbai: The Mumbai police have restored its help desk to help its personnel and their family members who have contracted COVID-19 in each of its five regions. The decision was taken as a surge in a number of cases of COVID-19 has been reported in the city and within the police force.
Since lockdown was first imposed in March 2020, Mumbai police have lost 101 police personnel to the virus and the force has 450 active cases as of Tuesday. Since April last year, 7997 police personnel have contracted the virus.
According to Mumbai police officials, the individual help desk has been started in every five regions of Mumbai which will be monitored by a central help desk located in the Control room of the Mumbai police. Initially, there was only one help desk in the control room.
"Each help desk comprises of 2-3 officers and staff who will help the infected police personnel and their family members with hospitalisation, bed availability, ambulance and if needed they will also help them to provide Remdesevir," said Mumbai police spokesperson DCP S Chaitanya. Remdesivir is an anti-viral drug effective to treat acute COVID-19 cases. The drug is currently in short supply and people are complaining of its availability and inflated price.
Along with the designated helpline numbers of the help desks, mobile numbers of police personnel in the help desk have also been flashed so that in cases of emergencies they can be contacted directly, added the senior police official.
The help desk first came into action last year when the pandemic was at its peak and many police personnel complained of difficulties in getting hospital admissions despite being frontline workers.
