With 421 new cases, total Covid-19 tally in central police forces cross 10k

The total number of Covid-19 cases in central police forces under the command of the Union home ministry crossed the 10,000-mark on Saturday with 421 fresh cases being reported in a day, a latest data said.

The cases pertain to the seven forces of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), National Security Guard (NSG) and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF).

As per the latest data accessed by PTI, these forces have recorded a total of 10,259 Covid-19 cases till now out of which 4,687 are active while the rest of the personnel have recovered.

The maximum cases of 3,341 have been recorded in the CRPF, the country's largest paramilitary force with about 325,000 personnel.

This is followed by 3,164 cases in the BSF and 1,639 cases in the CISF.

The about 250,000 personnel strength BSF guards Indian fronts with Pakistan and Bangladesh while the CISF is the national civil aviation security force.

The ITBP has had 1,132 cases, SSB 507, NDRF 393 and the NSG 92.

The ITBP guards the 3,488 km-long Line of Actual Control (LAC), the SSB mans open Indian borders with Nepal and Bhutan, the NDRF is the central disaster contingency force and the NSG is the federal counter-terrorist and counter-hijack combat commandos force.

In all these forces, the recoveries are much more than the active cases.

Among the 421 fresh Covid-19 cases reported on Saturday, the maximum have been reported in the BSF at 141, 100 in the CRPF, 84 in the ITBP, 68 in the CISF and 23 in the SSB, the data said.

The NDRF reported four fresh cases and the NSG one positive case of the coronavirus pandemic.

The data said samples of over 600 personnel of these forces have been taken and results are awaited.

There have been 44 Covid-19 deaths in these forces with the maximum 15 being in the CRPF, 12 in the BSF, 11 in the CISF, three each in the ITBP and the SSB.

The maximum cases of personnel of these forces being infected for Covid-19 are of those who are joining duty and are being put in mandatory quarantine, a senior officer said.

These forces, with a combined strength of about 1 million personnel, render a variety of security duties, law and order management, border guarding, counter-insurgency and counter-terrorist operations and disaster rescue and relief under the command of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).