Three policemen died of Covid-19 in the last 24-hours in Maharashtra taking the toll death in the force to 93, a senior officer said. One of the three was from Mumbai where 53 policemen have died so far in the pandemic.
Vinayak Deshmukh, assistant inspector general of police (law and order) on Saturday confirmed that three policemen from constabulary from Mumbai, Thane and Satara police commissionerates died of Covid-19. All of them were above 50 years of age.
Mumbai police has maximum cases of Covid-19 cases with over 3,600 infected police personnel, followed by Thane police.
A total of 8,232 policemen (861 officers, 7,371 constables) from across the state have contracted the virus till date. Of them 6,314 have recovered and many of them even joined duty. There are now 1,825 active cases among policemen who are undergoing treatment at various hospitals and Covid care facilities.
Senior IPS officer additional director general of police (law and order) Mumbai police, Vinoy Kumar Choubey is among the officers who contracted coronavirus.
The police department has taken multiple measures to prevent the spread of the contagious disease in the police force and also allowed elderly cops to stay at home to slow down the mortality rate.
In a recent move Mumbai police has decided to send all those policemen for Covid-19 tests who are more vulnerable and exposed to the disease prone areas. Naval Bajaj, joint commissioner of police (administration) and also designated nodal officer for Covid management in Mumbai police, confirmed that the police personnel from age group of 45-55 will undergo the rapid antigen testing. After this younger policemen will undergo the tests.
An internal assessment report prepared by the Mumbai Police to understand the spread of Covid-19 among its personnel till July 1, has found that the fatality rate in the city police is 1.34% while that of Mumbai is 5.83%. The fatality rate was the highest at 82% among those aged above 50 years.
The report found that police personnel aged between 31 and 40 years were affected the most. High blood pressure and diabetes were the most common ailments among those with a medical history.
