RAWALPINDI: Following a surge in coronavirus cases in the district police, the city police officer (CPO) has decided to conduct testing of personnel on a massive scale from Thursday.

CPO Mohammad Ahsan Younas said 12 police officials had so far tested positive and a majority of them had been deployed at quarantine centres during the lockdown.

He said the SHOs of Naseerabad, Civil Lines and Taxila were among the positive cases.

After the SHOs were tested positive, the other staff members of the three police stations were subjected to coronavirus tests and quarantined.

Police have already sent samples of 200 personnel for testing and results of 58 have been received which were negative. The results of others are awaited.

The coronavirus testing will be started from the Police Lines where hundreds of personnel live in barracks and some with their families in the police colony.

The CPO said police were taking all possible measures to ensure the safety

of the personnel, especially those deployed at quarantine centres and involved in shifting of suspected or confirmed patients to hospitals.

Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2020