30 Odisha Cops Quarantined As Arrested Accused Tests COVID-19 Positive

Puri: The Puri district administration has put 30 staff of Kumbharpada police station under institutional quarantine after an arrested accused brought to the police station tested positive for COVID-19.

The 30 police personnel including the inspector in-charge (IIC) of the police station have been quarantined at a hotel as a precautionary measure, informed Puri SP Umashankar Dash on Sunday.

The swab samples of the cops will be sent for COVID-19 test today. Meanwhile, new staff have been posted after proper sanitisation of Kumbharpada police station.

According to reports, the accused was arrested and brought to the police station in a snatching case on May 15.

“As per the latest information by Health and Family Welfare Department, four persons of Puri district have been tested positive for COVID-19. Out of the 4 cases, one belongs to Pipili, another from Konark NAC and the rest two are residents of Puri Town,” informed district Collector Balwant Singh on Sunday.

#BREAKING: 4 more #Covid19 cases detected in Puri today.

District collector Balwant Singh informs that two of them are from Puri town while one each from Konark & Pipili.

Of the total, 3 were from quarantine centre & one was an accused arrested by Kumbharpada Police pic.twitter.com/q6vhXQDkS8

— OTV (@otvnews) May 17, 2020

“Three of them have been lodged at TMC quarantine centre. The fourth person is an accused who came in contact with the staff of Kumbharpada police station. The accused stays near Narendra Pushkarini in Puri Town and therefore the area will be declared as containment zone by the administration," stated Singh.

The administration has started contact tracing while the patient has been sent to nearby COVID-19, he said.

Worth mentioning, a sarpanch was tested positive with coronavirus in the State yesterday. The identity of the sarpanch is yet to be revealed by the health department.

With the four new cases, the COVID-19 positive tally in Puri district rose to 29. Meanwhile, the total number of COVID-19 positive cases in the State stood at 876, including two cases from Bolangir and four from Puri that were reported Sunday evening.

While the death toll remained four, the total number of recoveries rose to 220, informed the state health and family welfare department.

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(Edited By Ramakant Biswas)