New Delhi : Twelve more Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel deployed in Delhi tested coronavirus positive on Friday, taking total such cases in the paramilitary force to 64 across the country.
All the 12 infected men are from CRPF 31st Battalion based in east Dehi’s Mayur Vihar. They have been quarantined at a Delhi government centre in Mandawali, a few kilometres away from the battalion’s base camp.
Earlier in the day, corona test reports of 117 CRPF personnel were received.
The total number of infected CRPF personnel in Delhi now is 63. One CRPF personnel of 194th Battalion of its Rapid Action Force (RAF) tested positive in Ahmedabad earlier this month.
A 55-year-old Sub-Inspector of the 3.5-lakh strong paramilitary force had succumbed to corona infection on Tuesday.
A total of six of the 89 personnel tested were found positive on Thursday. On Tuesday, 12 other personnel were declared corona positive. Fifteen CRPF men were found positive on April 26, including one Assistant Sub-Inspector and four Head Constables from the same battalion whose nine personnel had tested coronavirus positive on April 24.
The personnel of the 31st unit underwent tests after a Head Constable who visited the battalion recently tested positive for the virus.
The Head Constable, who was working as a nursing assistant, is part of the 162nd battalion deployed in Kupwara in Jammu & Kashmir and was visiting Noida on leave.
Soon after the nursing assistant was found corona positive, all his contacts were shifted to a quarantine centre.
The CRPF, the country’s largest Central Armed Police Force (CAPF), is mandated for internal security duties and anti-Naxal and counter-terrorist operations, apart from rendering regular law and order duties.
The information came at a time when the deadly virus has already snuffed out 59 lives in the national capital, besides infecting a total of 3,515 people. There are 2,362 active cases now in Delhi.