22 cops quarantined in Haripur as precautionary measure

HARIPUR: The Haripur district administration and Health Department authorities on Tuesday quarantined 22 policemen for two weeks as a precautionary measure, official sources said.

They were shifted to the 100-bed quarantine set up in the Government Girls College in Khanpur, the sources said. It is the first time during the outbreak of coronavirus in the country that 22 suspected patients, all cops, were quarantined in Haripur. However, the sources maintained that the policemen didn’t carry any symptoms of COVID-19. They said the cops were now under regular observation and the Rapid Response team of the Health Department had started compiling their daily record.

The Police and Health Department sources said the policemen, including a DSP, SHO and ASIs from the Elite Force, were engaged in providing security to the “zaireen” who were returning from Iran after visiting holy places on the way to Abbottabad, Mansehra and Gilgit- Baltistan.

As a routine, the police party comprising 22 policemen escorted their buses on the Hazara Motorway within the limits of the Haripur district. According to sources, the policemen remained in contact with the pilgrims and could have contracted the infection.

The district administration and Health Department as a precautionary measure shifted all of them to the Government Girls Degree College in Tarnava in Khanpur. The team of Rapid Response, according to official sources, examined all of them but no cop carried any symptoms of coronavirus COVID-19. The sources said the detailed screening of the policemen would be carried out on Wednesday but they would remain under observation for two weeks even though they had been declared negative.

The local administration has set up quarantines at 16 points throughout the district. Isolation wards were established at the DHQ Hospital in Haripur, Tehsil Headquarters Hospital in Khanpur and Ghazi, and Dingi Hospital. All efforts to contact the Deputy Commissioner Nadeem Nasir to seek his comments proved futile.