8 policemen test positive in Bengal

nKOLKATA: After doctors and frontline medical staff, Covid-19 has now started taking a toll on the police personnel in Bengal. An entire police-office in Kolkata has been declared a containment zone, the first time in West Bengal.

“Till date eight personnel of Kolkata Police have already tested positive for Covid-19 while more than 40 are presently quarantined,” said a senior officer of Kolkata Police. On Wednesday the officer-in-charge of Bowbazar police station tested positive for Covid-19. Before that two officers from two other police stations had tested positive.

Among them was the officer-incharge of Pragati Maidan police station in east Kolkata. As the head of Pragati Maidan police station, the officer was in charge of smooth cremation of Covid patients at Dhapa. The cremation ground at Dhapa has been reserved exclusively for Covid patients.

nTARN TARAN/JALANDHAR/AMRITSAR/ GURDASPUR:AT least 39 more people, including 20 who returned from pilgrimage to Takht Hazur Sahib in Maharashtra’s Nanded recently, tested positive for the coronavirus disease, or Covid-19 in Punjab on Thursday.

With this, the state’s tally of those infected with the disease reached 1,673.

Of these, 13 men, all Nanded returnees aged between 20 and 68, are from Tarn Taran district where the Covid-19 tally reached 157, of which 156 are pilgrims. One man had come from Rajasthan.

Deputy commissioner Pardeep Kumar Sabharwal said the 13 positive patients were quarantined at the Guru Gobind Singh Khalsa College at Sarhali village.

In Jalandhar, 11 fresh positive cases of infection surfaced on Thursday, taking the district’s tally to 148.

In Amritsar, eight more people were found infected with the virus on Thursday. Civil surgeon Dr Jugal Kishore said, “Of the eight, six are pilgrims who returned from Nanded. The other two are their close contacts. Of a total of 274 total cases in Amritsar, 255 are Nanded returnees and their contacts.”

In Faridkot, an 80-year-old woman, who returned from Nanded in Maharashtra, tested positive for the coronavirus on Thursday, taking the district’s count to 45.

The elderly woman was admitted to the isolation ward of Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital (GGSMCH), Faridkot.

Civil surgeon Dr Rajinder Kumar said, “The woman was quarantined upon her return and her swab samples were sent for testing. A total of 130 pilgrims have returned to the district from Hazur Sahib, of whom 38 tested positive while reports of 21 are pending. At present, there is only one active case in the district.”