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Chandni Mahal police station shut after cops test positive; 2 ASIs in north Delhi get disease
This is the first police station in the Capital to be sealed. Chandni Mahal was earlier declared a containment zone by the state government that placed severe restrictions on its residents, after many tested positive for the disease.
The Chandni Mahal police station in central Delhi was sealed on Thursday after two constables posted there tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday. Along with this, at least 26 other police personnel, including the station house officer, were quarantined there too.
This is the first police station in the Capital to be sealed. Chandni Mahal was earlier declared a containment zone by the state government that placed severe restrictions on its residents, after many tested positive for the disease.
Deputy commissioner of police[DCP] (central) Sanjay Bhatia said that the two constables lived in the barracks inside the station because of which such an action was necessitated. Bhatia said the other police personnel of the station will now be working from the nearby Jama Masjid police station.
The constables, both in their 40s, were taken to Max Hospital, Saket for treatment.
ASIs test positive
Two assistant sub-inspectors (ASIs) with the Delhi Police tested positive for Covid-19 in north Delhi.
One ASI tested positive after his wife, a nurse at the Lok Nayak Hospital that is a dedicated Covid-19 hospital, contracted the disease. The hospital, however, maintains that she did not get the disease from there. Police are still to determine how the second ASI officer contracted the disease.
The first ASI officer lived in Model Town’s Police Colony. His 21-year-old son too tested positive.
Vijayanta Arya, deputy commissioner of police (north-west), said that the ASI was posted with the provision and logistics department and that his duty profile did not require him to have much contact with his colleagues.
The ASI was on a medical leave for a few weeks and that was extended once his wife fell ill. His wife was shifted to Lok Nayak Hospital’s isolation ward for treatment.
“The ASI’s wife tested positive last week. The ASI and his two sons went into quarantine as per protocol and got themselves tested. On Monday, the ASI and a son tested positive,” said the DCP.
The duo have been moved to Lok Nayak Hospital too, while the son has been home quarantined. “Ever since the lockdown, the couple had not been interacting with their neighbours, maintaining social distancing. So, it is unlikely that their neighbours were infected because of them. But we are investigating all possible contacts,” said Arya.
An official from Lok Nayak hospital said that the nurse did not contract the disease from the hospital but could not confirm from where she eventually got it from. “Two of our nurses were diagnosed with Covid-19 and they might have got it from outside the hospital -- one of them lived in a containment zone and the other lived close to a quarantine centre,” said the official. On Wednesday, a doctor from the hospital also tested positive for the infection. The doctor worked in the high-risk Covid-19 ICU.
The other ASI lived with his wife and four children in North Delhi’s Burari and was posted as the persona security officer with a private doctor. He had become symptomatic last week and was tested.
Santosh Kumar Meena, deputy commissioner of police (security), said that it was unlikely that the ASI’s association with the doctor had anything to do with him contacting the virus. “The doctor and others known to the doctor have not tested positive for the virus. The policeman told us that a scrap dealer had visited his house. We don’t yet know how the policeman contracted the disease,” said Meena.
The ASI was found positive on Tuesday and was moved to Lok Nayak Hospital on Wednesday. “His wife and four children have been home quarantined and their test results are awaited,” said Meena.
