COVID-19 - 10 Security Personnel At Mumbai Airport Test Positive For Coronavirus

Ten jawans of the Central Industrial Security Force or CISF posted at the Mumbai airport have tested positive for coronavirus. The paramilitary force has decided to get all 152 jawans staying together in a camp tested.

"One of our jawans has tested positive on March 27. With him, 11 other jawans were in contact. As a precaution we got others tested too out of which 9 have tested positive," a senior official in CISF told NDTV.

According to him, the first jawan who tested positive stayed in a CISF camp in Kalamboli. "152 jawans also stayed there so as a precaution we are getting them tested too," he said.

According to the CISF, those who test positive will be shifted to the Kasturba Hospital for treatment while those who test negative will be kept under observation at a quarantine centre for 14 days.

Meanwhile, the second test of the first jawan who tested positive first has come out negative and this is why the force is hopeful that the nine who tested positive might also come negative in their second report.

"Most of the jawans who tested positive in first test are asymptomatic. All of them are fine. We are hopeful that the second test would be negative too," the officer added.

The CISF said it has taken adequate precautions to keep its jawans safe by practising social distancing and circulating the Health Ministry's rules.

Maharashtra, as on Friday, has 423 cases of COVID-19, out of which Mumbai has reported 235 cases, according to the state's Public Health Department.

Earlier this week, nine people at a quarantine facility run by the army in Rajasthan's Jaisalmer tested positive for coronavirus.

Last month, the centre had asked all paramilitary forces to go into "battle mode" after an Indian Army soldier tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Ladakh.