Uttarakhand: District administration decides to test all soldiers before allowing them to go for their border posting
Mayur Dixit, district magistrate (DM), Uttarkashi, said that some of the ITBP personnel had come in contact with earlier Covid-19 patients, and the others had returned from leave from their respective native places.
The Uttarkashi district administration has decided to conduct the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) test on each security personnel at its entry point that shares a border with China.
The decision was taken after 30 Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel, deployed in Uttarkashi district, were found to be infected with SARS-CoV-2, which causes the disease, on Wednesday.
Mayur Dixit, district magistrate (DM), Uttarkashi, said that some of the ITBP personnel had come in contact with earlier Covid-19 patients, and the others had returned from leave from their respective native places.
“There is no need to panic, as rigorous contact tracing is in progress. All security personnel coming to the district will be tested at the entry point itself before they are sent to the border areas in a bid to contain the spread of the contagion,” said the DM.
Plans are afoot to conduct 500 tests a day, he added.
Officials said an ITBP jawan, who had returned from leave in July, was posted along the India-China border on completion of his quarantine period. Last week, he tested Covid-19 positive.
Swab samples of over 60 ITBP jawans posted at the India-China border were sent for testing, of whom 30 were found to be infected on Wednesday evening.
Uttarkashi district shares a border with China via Harsil and Nelong valleys and a few other frontier hamlets.
In Uttarakhand, over 150 security personnel, including the Indian Army, ITBP and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), have tested Covid-19 positive to date.
On July 19, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had spoken to state Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat over the phone to find out about the Covid-19-affected army jawans in the state and gave necessary directions to curb the viral outbreak in the hill state, officials said.
The PM returned the CM’s call after Rawat had informed Modi on the previous day that “110 army personnel had tested Covid-19 positive in the state, of which around 100 cases were reported in the past three-four days”.
“The PM had asked the CM to provide every possible help to the army personnel for treatment with proper coordination between the state government and the army,” an official from the state secretariat, privy to the matter, had said.
(With inputs from Vipin Negi in Uttarkashi)
