Covid-19: 76,768 security personnel tested positive, 401 died till Aug 21

: As many as 76,768 police

personnel all over the country including paramilitary forces such as CRPF, CISF, BSF and NSG tested positive for COVID-19 while 401 succumbed to the killer virus, according to a report by the Bureau of Police Research and Development.

The report (compiledtill August 21) titled "Indian Police Response to COVID-19 Crisis" said, Maharashtra topped the chart with 129 deaths due to COVID-19 and 12,760 positive cases among the police personnel.

Telangana was in second place with 40 deaths due to the virus.

Out of the over 75,000 positive cases, paramilitary forces accounted for 15,318 infections with Central Reserve Police Force leading the table with 5,467 cases and 24 deaths in the category.

Digital tools were used by Telangana police to combat the spread of the coronavirus and maintain the public order and safety, it said adding the city police extensively used multimedia platforms to curb misinformation, fake news and rumours, the report which was released last week said.

A camera-based detection of mask violations was done at various locations in the city.

The systems provided the heat map of violations to understand and assess the areas of non-compliances and initiate corrective measures.

The city police used crowd analytics with CCTV footage to identify the public gatherings beyond permissible limits besides using Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system to check vehicles in violation and generate challans and seizure of the automobiles if required, the report said.

"Under a pioneering initiative of Rachakonda police in partnership with Tata Institute of social sciences, nearly 10,669 workers were interviewed personally and the requirements were assessed. Wherever interventions were required, they were provided with dry ration kits, medicines, health check ups specially to sick and pregnant women, water supply, rental issues with owners etc," the report pointed out.

Lauding the efforts put in by the Andhra Pradesh police, the report said the technological advances that were brought in the police department during the previous few months served them during the pandemic.

Launch of Disha app, women police stations, setting up labs and other technical units placed the state police on a firm footing to handle the crisis and made the police stand out at the national level.