 "CAPFs witness spike in Covid-19 infections; about 3,000 active cases now")
The Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) have registered a sharp spike in COVID-19 infections over the last four days with active cases reaching around 3,000, official data showed on Monday.
The five CAPFs -- CRPF, BSF, ITBP, CISF and SSB -- apart from two other Central forces under the command of the Union Home Ministry, the NDRF and NSG, have more than 2,900 active cases as on January 9 as compared to a total of 964 active infections they reported on January 5, the data accessed by PTI stated.
As many as 618 personnel were reported infected by the coronavirus on Sunday over a 24-hour time period.
The maximum active cases at 1,068 are in the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) that guards vital infrastructure and airports in the country, followed by 677 in the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), the lead anti-Naxal operations force.
The Border Security Force, which guards the Pakistan and Bangladesh frontiers, has 515 active cases followed by 379 in the Nepal and Bhutan borders guarding force Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB).
The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) that guards the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China has 148 active cases while the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has 90 cases and the federal counter-terrorism commando force National Security Guard (NSG) has 27, the data showed.
These forces, which have about 10 lakh personnel in combined strength, have had about 92,000 coronavirus infections in their ranks since the outbreak of the pandemic in early 2020 and they have lost a total of 348 personnel to the disease till now.
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Over 88,000 personnel, out of the total infected, have recovered till now and the current active ones are largely stable and many personnel are asymptomatic, a senior CAPF officer said.
He said all these forces have re-activated their COVID-19 control rooms and health facilities due to the latest rise in infections being witnessed in the country including that of the new variant of the virus called 'Omicron', the officer said.