Zero new Covid cases among Delhi Police for two days

For the past two days, not a single personnel of the Delhi Police has tested positive for Covid-19

For the past two days, not a single personnel of the Delhi Police has tested positive for Covid-19. From over 100 policepersons testing positive daily this April and May, during the fourth and deadliest wave of the pandemic in Delhi -- the number had climbed to a high of 275 cases on April 22-- it has finally dropped to zero, senior police officers said.

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With the overall cases decreasing in the national capital and the positivity rate remaining below the 1% mark for the past 11 days, in the last one week, fewer than five personnel were contracting the infection till Saturday, the police said. On Monday, Delhi reported 33 new Covid cases and a test positivity rate -- samples that return positive among the total tested -- of .22%. The daily death toll due to the disease was 16, according to the state health bulletin.

Currently there are 130 active cases in the force of nearly 80,000 personnel. Almost 90% of police personnel have received the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, while about 70% have received the second dose, officers said. Currently, four police personnel are admitted to hospitals, and 126 are in quarantine.

Senior officers, who daily monitor the infection spike within the force, said in mid-April, the number of infections among the force was high because as front-line workers, policepersons were on the roads, outside hospitals and crematoriums, helping arrange oxygen supply for hospitals and ferrying the sick and the dead.

A Covid-19 dashboard report of infections within the force shows that between April 1 and June 11, 40 police personnel died of the infection. Compared to that, only 37 police personnel had died in the first three waves of the infection in Delhi.

The police’s Covid report shows that in March (before the fourth wave), only one or two personnel were contracting the infection daily. In fact, on March 13,14,15,17,18, and 29, there was not a single case in the force. The report shows that cases started to spike from April 2. By April 15, around 150 personnel were testing positive daily and it touched the 200-mark on April 19, and reached a peak of 275 on April 22.

This was the week when the capital city was reporting a daily high of over 25,000 cases. The highest daily increase of 28,395 infections was reported on April 20, according to the state government’s health bulletin.

Until April 28, the new cases reported from within the force remained above 200 a day after which it started declining gradually. But even until May third week, nearly 50 fresh cases were being reported daily, senior officers said.

Between April 4 and May 31, a total of 6,058 police personnel contracted Covid-19. In comparison, only 7,725 personnel tested positive between March 2020 and March 31, 2021.

“We did not have any fresh cases on Saturday and Sunday. Even in the last week of May, we were getting 20 to 30 new cases. This drop in cases is happening despite personnel being out on the roads, carrying out policing duties just like during the pre-Covid times. All of them have been directed to follow Covid-appropriate behaviour. Because of the high rate of infection, the police brass had also started three Covid Care Centres for the policepersons. Separately, a team of senior officers were also formed to track each case and ensure that every Covid-19 patient within the force received proper medical care,” a senior police officer, privy to the data of the police’s Covid-19 report, said, asking not to be named.