68 ITBP personnel Covid +ve at Indo-China border in U'khand

Dehradun: Sixty eight ITBP personnel have been reported Covid-19 positive in Uttarkashi district and are undergoing treatment at the Covid-centre where teams of expert doctors are monitoring them round the clock.

According to the district administration, ITBP personnel have returned from the holidays from across the country and joined the Indo-China border forward-posts duties early this month. Of the total 68 Covid-19 positive cases, 38 cases have been recorded in the last 48 hours.

District Magistrate, Mayur Dixit, said, "Our district health official teams are coordinating with the ITBP for the contact tracing of the personnel who are Covid-19. All the ITBP personnel who were in touch with the Covid-19 positive personnel, would be traced and then tested to know their status."

The ITBP has over 2000 personnel in the Uttarkashi district and over 100 personnel have returned from the holidays. ITBP spokesperson Vivek

Pandey said, "All the ITBP personnel returning from a station from other states or from their native place, undergo the mandatory quarantine of 14 days and they are allowed to join duties only after their negative test reports."

Pandey added that all the Covid-19 ITBP personnel would follow the protocol of the union health ministry for rejoining their duties. "The norms of social distancing and other precautionary measures are strictly enforced at all the facilities of the ITBP across the country," said Pandey.

In Uttarakhand, a total 8,552 Covid-19 cases have been reported and a spike of 258 cases including the ITBP personnel has been recorded on Thursday. The state has the doubling rate of 28.14 days and 63.46 % is the recovery rate. Ever since the pandemic spread in the hill state, 5427 Covid-19 patients have been fully recovered across the 13 districts.