Thirty BSF jawans have tested positive for coronavirus in Jodhpur. Their battalion had been posted at Jama Masjid area in New Delhi and they had returned from there to Jodhpur. These numbers are expected go up as samples of 63 jawans had been taken and the remaining reports are still awaited.
According to a BSF official the jawans are part of a company that had been sent from Jaipur to New Delhi and deployed in the walled city area for internal security duty. The company was airlifted to Jodhpur after some of the jawans tested positive.
The company has been quarantined at the BSF’s Subsidary Training Centre (STC) in Jodhpur. Samples of the entire company were taken on Tuesday and reports have come in on Wednesday. Those who have been tested positive have been admitted to AIIMS, Jodhpur for treatment.
BSF has also taken a decision that all its officers and personnel, deployed along the Indo-Pak border, returning to duty after vacation would be first put in quarantine centres for 14 days. This is after a directive from the Central government. Over 2000 BSF personnel of various ranks were on vacation at the time of Holi and with the COVID-19 outbreak, they had been advised to stay in their home towns. They are now reporting back to duty.
BSF is the first line of defence on the Indian borders. Rajasthan has a strong deployment of BSF as there it shares a 1000 kilometer border with Pakistan.
