Two paramilitary personnel test positive for Covid-19, trigger concerns

Contacts of the two security personnel who tested positive are being traced.

A Border Security Force (BSF) officer and a Jawan of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) tested positive on Saturday in the first instance of infections among the security forces, raising concerns in the government circles, said officials.

BSF jawans stand guard at the India-Bangladesh border at Fulbari Border checkpoint, some 16 kms from Siliguri. (AFP Photo)

The 57-year-old BSF second-in-command rank officer is posted at Tekanpur (Gwalior), the academy of the border guarding force, and he seems to have picked up the infection from a family member who recently returned from the United Kingdom, one of the officials cited above said.

He and his family members have been put in quarantine at a local hospital and at least two dozen officers/jawans, believed to have come in contact with him are being identified and tested.

The CISF head constable was admitted earlier this week in a hospital in Mumbai after he showed symptoms of the disease. His test came out positive following which he has been shifted to another hospital dedicated to coronavirus patients in Mumbai.

Officials said that all his colleagues, family members and seniors at Mumbai airport are being checked and all facilities where he went in the last two weeks are being sanitized.