State sees first cop casualty, 508 fresh cases take tally past 8,000

Ranchi: A Covid-19 positive police sub-inspector died on Sunday, becoming the first casualty of the viral infection among cops who are on frontline duty in the state. The 54-year-old policeman had tested positive on July 20 and died during treatment at Paras hospital around 2 pm. Personnel the police department have demanded Rs 50 lakh insurance for the kin of the deceased.

Meanwhile, the state continued to register a spike in the number of cases with 508 fresh infections reported in the last 24 hours of which 457 were reported on Sunday and 51 were detected late on Saturday night. Two other patients also died on Sunday — one each from Koderma and Palamu, taking the toll in the state to 85.

“An 85-year-old resident of Domchach in Koderma and a 46-year-old resident of Kund Muhalla in Daltonganj died on Sunday. Both patients had several comorbidities and had developed pneumonia,”a health department official said.

The cop's death was however not included in the state Covid bulletin. With 457 samples out of a total of 5,339 testing positive on Sunday, the growth rate of the disease stood at 8.5%.

Ranchi continued to lead the districts reporting maximum number of fresh infections on Sunday at 96 cases. The other districts with high number of infections are Koderma (58), Gumla (38) West Singhbhum (34), Hazaribag (33), Lohardaga (29) while East Singhbhum and Chatra with 28 cases each. Gumla, West Singhbhum and Lohardaga reported a spike after almost a week.

Soon after the death of the cop, the Jharkhand Police Association, led by its president Yogendra Singh, marched to the private hospital where he died and reiterated their demand for Rs 50 lakh insurance for all cops on Covid duty. They also demanded immediate release of the amount to the kin of the deceased.

Talking to TOI, Singh said, “We have already met DGP M V Rao and had voiced our concern in this regard last week but the state government hasn’t taken a call on it yet. On one hand, they call us corona warriors and when we need their support, they are mum. If a decision is not taken in this regard immediately, we will be forced to protest.”

With 457 cases reported on Sunday, the state crossed 8,000-mark with a cumulative caseload of 8349 cases. Of them, 4,560 are active while 3,704 have recovered.