Nagpur: After the Covid-19 pandemic struck last year in March, a total of 43,482 police personnel in Maharashtra police force were gripped by the infection and 469 died of it, while implementing lockdown and safety protocols in the State. The deceased police personnel include 41 officers and 428 lower rank personnel.
The police force was at the forefront in implementation of lockdown across the State. According to information and media reports, in Nagpur city, 23 police personnel succumbed to the deadly virus while five died in Nagpur Rural. In Maharashtra, highest fatalities have been recorded in Mumbai with deaths of 119 police personnel, followed by Thane with 35 deaths, Pune with 18 deaths, Ahmednagar with 14 deaths, Gadchiroli with 13 deaths and Navi Mumbai, Nashik Rural each with 12 deaths.
As per the statistics, September saw highest fatalities of policemen due to Covid-19, followed by 68 in April 2020 and 55 in August last year. While 12 fatalities each were recorded in January, February and March this year. As the State has managed to contain the graph of the virus, the number of cases in police force also decreased simultaneously. Of these 43,882 Covid-19 positive police personnel across the State, 42,087 have recovered. There are more than 1,000 active cases in the Maharashtra police while around 9,000 are still quarantined, said a top rank police official.
Many of the 469 deceased policemen were already having health issues including comorbidity. Cops with comorbidity are the most vulnerable to the infection, the officer said. Maharashtra police is the strong force of two lakh police personnel and around 1.40 lakh have been vaccinated so far. The number of serious cases and fatalities in the force was low in the second wave due to vaccination, the officer claimed.
