BHUBANESWAR: Nine Railway Protection Force (RPF) staff, part of a 26-member team that had been to
New Delhi from Kharagpur division in West Bengal, have tested positive for COVID-19.
The nine included a 32-year-old constable posted at Balasore in Odisha. He is undergoing treatment at Ashwini COVID Hospital at Cuttack.
Sources said the 26 RPF staff sent to New Delhi for security related duty stayed at Dayabasti RPF campus from March 20 to April 13.
They returned in a parcel train to Howrah on April 14 and from the railway station they were picked up by RPF truck which dropped them at different barracks.
As per protocol, they were quarantined at barracks and empty railway quarters.
After the man posted at Balasore and quarantined at RPF barrack tested positive for COVID-19 on April 20, the rest of the group who had returned from New Delhi were shifted to supervised quarantines.
"Subsequently, samples of the rest of the staff, who had travelled in the same parcel train during their return, were collected for testing. Eight among them posted at different locations in West Bengal have tested positive," chief PRO of South Eastern Railway Sanjay Ghosh said.
Meanwhile, the secondary contacts of the RPF staff have been quarantined and the barracks kept under strict supervision.