CHANDIGARH: A day after a 52-year-old police officer died due to COVID-19, the Punjab Police on Sunday decided not to deploy policemen who are over 55 years of age or those with pre-existing medical risk on the frontline jobs.
Director General of Police Dinkar Gupta ordered strict compliance of his orders on weekly off or rest days of all policemen on frontline duties.
"Police personnel over 55 years of age or those with pre-existing and enhanced medical risk factors, such as hypertension issues, cardiac history, asthma or a compromised/suppressed immune system for any reason, should not be deployed on the frontline, as far as possible," he said in an official release here.
An assistant commissioner of police succumbed to coronavirus infection in Ludhiana on Saturday.
The DGP directed all the police commissioners and SSPs to follow a rotational system of providing a weekly off/rest to the frontline personnel, with efforts to organise the deployment in such a manner that two days of rest can be provided to all the policemen after every 10 days.
To ensure protection of police personnel, the DGP has requested the chief secretary to direct the state health department to provide a minimum of 4,050 PPE kits/suits and 18,000 N-95 masks on immediate basis.
At present, Gupta said some PPE suits are already available with the police department, which are being used during sensitive tasks.
The DGP, however, said that the police officers deployed at coronavirus hotspots, containment zones, clusters and isolation wards, need PPE suits, which are certified by the Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.
Police personnel who have to come in close contact with either confirmed or suspect cases of coronavirus, while carrying out the debriefing, contact tracing and tracking of Tablighi Jamaat cases, etc.
also need such PPE kits, he added.
The police force currently has 2.5 lakh face masks, 81,000 gloves, 1,36,000 hand sanitisers and 20,100 soap/hand wash, the DGP said, adding that all efforts are being made to ensure total protection of the police personnel.
Listing the welfare measures for police personnel discharging their duties amid the coronavirus outbreak, the DGP said to boost their immunity, about 1.36 lakh tablets of multivitamins have been distributed among the policemen.
The police personnel are also being provided with nutritious, rich and adequate diet to minimise the risk to those exposed to coronavirus, and also facing the threat of lowered immunity due to lack of sleep and rest.