Hyderabad: In a painful twist in the COVID-19 devastation tale in Telangana, a head constable working with Hyderabad City Police was found infected with the deadly disease.
The infection report of 56-year-old Head Constable Munawwar Khan came as a bolt from the blue to the police force that shifted Khan to the Gandhi Hospital where he has been quarantined.
In reaction to the discovery of Khan’s infection the City Police Chief has decided to quarantine at least a dozen other policemen who had been working with him.
According to sources Khan was attached with Saifabad Police Station for the last four days and posted at a check post at Telugu Talli flyover near State Secretariat.
The sources said that for the last about a couple of days Khan was found coughing persistently. Noticing his condition a senior police officer asked him to get checked out at Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences, Panjagutta. The blood report of Khan that came out late Monday revealed that he is infected with COVID-19.
A preliminary investigation conducted by a team of medical and police officials suggested that Khan might have come in contact with an infected person at Mallepally Badi Masjid, the Hyderabad headquarters of the Tablighi Jamaat. Khan was a regular to that mosque. “He preferred to say his prayers in that mosque whenever he got an opportunity,” one of Khan’s colleagues told siasat.com.
Teams of Medical and Health and GHMC have swung into action. They went to Khan’s residence in Panjagutta and identified seven primary contacts. They have been shifted to isolation centers.
At the same time more than twelve cops are being sent to quarantine centers across the city as a measure of precaution.