Delhi: 137 CRPF jawans who tested COVID positive to resume work after winning battle

The CRPF Jawans of 31 battalions, who had tested COVID positive last month have defeated the invisible enemy and are ready to serve the nation yet again. Last month, 139 Jawan of the 31 battalions of CRPF tested positive, of them 137 have recovered and will be joining the forces soon. One jawan lost his life in the battle. Following this, the battalion's facility at Mayur Vihar area of the national capital was sealed.

"This fight was not easy. When we got to know that over a hundred of our jawans have contracted the disease we suffered a major blow. It affected the morale of the forces. But as we are trained to fight no matter what, we mustered courage and went forward. And I happily share this that our jawans have moved won this battle against the invisible enemy," second in command at the battalion Deepandra Rajput told Republic TV. 

"We also received a lot of support from the local authorities who helped us bold quarantine Centers for our boys. We arranged an excellent diet for them and followed the regimes prescribed by the doctors," he added.

Read: Allahabad High Court to resume its functioning from June 8 as Centre eases lockdown

'HM assured support'

Rajput also highlighted how Union Home minister Amit Shah took cognizance of the situation and boosted the morale of the forces. "Our home minister also spoke to our boys. Assured them of all support. He was in touch with us and regularly enquired about the update of our officers," he said.

CRPF officials have been actively participating in implementing the lockdown. From helping out the poor and needy with food and other essentials, the CRPF officials across the nation from the past two months have been conducting sever sanitization drives as well. According to reports, the primary source of the infection within CRPF's 31st battalion was suspected to be a nursing attendant who had joined duty on April 7 after leave and was advised only a five-day quarantine - as against the 14-day period advised by the health ministry.

Read: Centre extends nationwide Coronavirus lockdown in containment zones till June 30

COVID-19 in India

Corona virus-positive cases crossed the 1.75 lakh mark on Saturday. This came three days after COVID-19 cases surpassed the 1.5 lakh milestone, as the number of fresh cases touched another new peak, going over 8,000 for the first time in a single day.  The death toll also witnessed a hike as the numbers crossed the 5000 marks.  200 people succumbed to COVID-19 on Saturday. This was dubbed as the second-highest spike in connection with fatalities. India has recorded 1,76,823 COVID-19 brill Saturday as reported by the state government, with 8,026 fresh cases.

Notably, in the national capital, the spike in COVID cases has been witnessed post relations accorded in lockdown by the government. On May 18 the COVID cases in Delhi was around 10000 with 168 deaths. The numbers have doubled since then and the fatalities have crossed the 400 mark.

Read: Vadodara Central Jail inmates produce masks, sanitisers, soap to help with COVID-19 fight

Read: Congress neta back home after recovering from COVID; celebrations ignore social distancing