HUBBALLI: As many as 150 policemen working in Hubballi-Dharwad Police Commissionerate have tested positive for COVID-19 in the last one week. This comes even as the district administration is striving to control the spread of COVID-19 driven by the highly- transmissible Omicron variant.
There are 2,100 police personnel in the commissionerate and all are fully-vaccinated against COVID-19. Also, the precautionary dose for the men in khaki has commenced as they are frontline workers. A senior police officer said that most of the 150 personnel who have tested positive are asymptomatic and a few have mild symptoms. However, all are in home isolation and are recovering.
Speaking to The New Indian Express, Hubballi-Dharwad Police Commissioner Labhu Ram said a couple of personnel tested positive on January 3, after a few more days, a few more tested positive. "Therefore, we tested all police personnel during the course of the last one week and 150 of them tested positive for COVID-19," he added.
During the second wave of the pandemic early last year, as many as 100 policemen had tested positive in the district. A majority of them had availed treatment at COVID Care Centres. "Even a separate CCC was created to treat all policemen in a single place," said an official.