CRPF personnel to undergo Covid test

JAMSHEDPUR: : Sereaikela-Kharsawan district administration decided to conduct Covid-19 testing of all the 150 CRPF personnel staying in the CRPF-196 battalion in Dugni camp after 25 jawans have tested positive in the camp so far, officials said on Wednesday.

Nine CRPF jawans from Dugni camp had tested positive on June 27 night after their swab samples were collected on June 25. Another 16 jawans tested positive on Tuesday night after their samples were sent for testing on June 28.

“We have started the process of Covid-19 testing of all the resident jawans and officers os CRPF’s Dugni camp. I have asked the district civil surgeon to start sample collection. All the 25 jawans were in CRPF’s own quarantine centre inside the camp,” A Dode, Seraikela-Kharsawan deputy commissioner (DC), said on Wednesday.

CRPF-197 Battalion commanding officer (CO) Birsa Oraon said all the 34 jawans had come to the Dugni camp from green zones between June 7 and 9.

“All of them were quarantined in a hostel inside the camp. We were supplying them food packets by placing them at the door. All Covid-19 protocols were being strictly complied to,” said Oraon.

He said the jawans had come from Haryana, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Bihar and Odisha after vacation and were asymptomatic. “We have about 150 personnel and officers in the camp presently. None from the three

companies stationed here or from the two companies deployed in Srinagar have reported a single positive case so far,” added Oraon.

District civil surgeon Dr Himanshu Bhusan Barwar said nine of jawans from the quarantined group of 34 CRPF jawans tested negative. “All of them had completed their 14-day quarantine period. But, we have decided to keep these nine jawans, who tested negative, in quarantine for 14 more days and retest them on the 10th day from June 28, when their samples were last collected,” said Dr Barwar.

According to the CS, some of these 25 jawans had contacted coronavirus infection at their vacation places or on their way back to Seraikela-Kharsawan. “We need to assess if there was sharing of washrooms in the camp’s quarantine centre. We now ask all Covid-19 patients and quarantined people at the time of release to not share washrooms with others for at least a week,” added Barwar.

› Presently, there are about 150 personnel and officers in the camp . None from the three companies stationed here or from the two companies deployed in Srinagar have reported a single positive case so far BIRSA ORAO, commanding officer