1,671 Maharashtra police personnel infected by COVID-19, 18 dead so far

Across Maharashtra, the number of police personnel infected with the COVID-19 has propelled to 1671 and a total of 18 deaths have been reported in the state police force so far. 

Data received on Saturday by the State police official which stated, in the last 24 hours, Five police personnel tested positive with the deadly Coronavirus across Maharashtra, which includes 174 cases at officer level and 1497 police personnel. Total 18 police personnel have died so far due to COVID-19 including one police officer and 17 policemen. 

The report also stated that until now 541 which includes 42 officers and 499 police personnel have recovered and discharged. Total police active cases are now 1112.

On Friday, Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh took to Twitter to inform about the unfortunate demise of Head Constable Arun Phadtare who was posted at Vile Parle Police Station in Mumbai. Being in the high-risk age-group, HC Phadtare was on leave for the past few days. He died due to COVID-19 infection on Friday, he tweeted. 

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'Very unfortunate'

Speaking to Republic TV, a senior officer said, “it’s very unfortunate to know we lost our 18 brave policemen. We offered our condolences to the bereaved family of the deceased policemen”. A large number of policemen have also been put in self-quarantine, which has left a staggering shortage of personnel in the police department. So to match the present requirements of police personnel, the Maharashtra government has sought Centre's help and asked to send around 2000 additional policemen from the Central Armed Police Forces to provide some respite to its own fatigued officers. 

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Out of which, While 5 companies —each with 120 highly-trained personnel -- deployed in the Mumbai and others deployed across the state. The CAPFs meant for Mumbai are 3 companies from the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), and 2 from Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), which are the part of 20 companies sought by the state for deployment during Ramzan-Eid and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The Maharashtra government had said that it had sought Central forces so that the overstretched police force could get some rest. The central forces will assist the Mumbai Police in maintaining law and order and in prevention of any untoward incident during lockdown. Personnel of the Central forces have been deployed in zones 1,3,5,6 and 9 of the city covering some areas of south and central Mumbai and parts of eastern and western suburbs, the police official said.

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(Image Credits: PTI)