Four police stations in Karnataka’s coastal districts of Udupi and Dakshina Kannada have been sealed after police personnel posted there tested positive for the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Four policemen in four different police stations have tested positive.
While three of these police stations are in Udupi district, one is in neighbouring Dakshina Kannada district. In Udupi, the three affected police stations are Ajekar, Karkala Rural and Brahmawar.
The Times of India reported that district police superintendent N Vishnuvarshan and his team have been sanitizing these police stations with the help of health department officials.
As a temporary measure, with the three police stations closed, police have set up an office in Karkala Circle with a small number of staff members drawn from other police stations.
Daijiworld further reported that the B and C blocks of police quarters, where the family of the policeman posted in Karkala PS live, have been sealed and the entire area has been declared as a containment zone.
The report said that close to 100 police staff working in these stations have to be quarantined as a precautionary measure.
The police stations will again be open for the public on Wednesday.
The police department is tracing all the primary and secondary contacts of these policemen who are now admitted in TMA Pai Hospital.
In Dakshina Kannada district, meanwhile, Superintendent of Police BM Laxmi Prasad said a constable from Vittal Police station has tested positive.
All the police personnel who tested positive in these two districts are contacts of patients who have already contracted the virus.
The SP was quoted by the Times of India saying that all police staff on duty are given fresh masks, sanitizers and face shields.
Incidentally in Bengaluru, a 34-year-old constable posted in the City Armed Reserve tested positive for COVID-19 on Saturday.
He was deployed as a driver for COVID-19 special duty for Chamarajpet Police Station reports said. Further, he was deployed for containment measures in Tipu Nagar which was declared as a containment zone. Another Bengaluru police constable, attached to Pulikeshi Nagar police station, had contracted the infection earlier in the week.