According to a senior official, the Union home ministry has taken note of this "serious" incident and sought details of the entire sequence of events from the force

New Delhi: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), has sought a detailed report from the CRPF by this month-end after a 55-year-old personnel of paramilitary force died due to coronavirus and about 50 others were infected with the pandemic in a single battalion.

According to a senior official, the Union home ministry has taken note of this "serious" incident and sought details of the entire sequence of events from the force.

The death of CRPF personnel due to COVID-19 and nearly 50 other troops of his battalion testing positive for the virus have raised question over the coronavirus guidelines issued in the country's largest paramilitary force.

The matter has rung alarm bells in the establishment after it came to light that "dichotomous" orders were issued in the force to prevent the spread of the pandemic.

Confusion Over '5-Day Quarantine' Order

The CRPF has issued fresh guidelines that mandate all suspected coronavirus cases to undertake a quarantine of 14 days.

The directives was issued by CRPF Director General (DG) AP Maheshwari after it was found that the medical wing of the paramilitary issued a separate order earlier this month allowing asymptomatic staffers to join work after a five-day quarantine.

Maheshwari said that after several confirmed cases were reported from the Delhi-based 31st battalion of the force, they initiated contact tracing which led them to the source -- a nursing assistant Jawan.

The nursing assistant, who himself is infected with the virus and admitted to a Delhi hospital, had resumed duty at this unit upon returning from leave after spending "only five days in quarantine".

The nursing assistant worked at the unit hospital for some days after undertaking 5-day isolation and it is suspected that other troops of the 31st battalion contracted the infection after coming in his contact.

"Our general order was 14 days quarantine for any personnel who came back to the unit after leave or had an exposure to COVID-19 infected person. Then we found there was another order by the medical wing that said medical staff who undergo five days quarantine and have no symptoms can be taken off quarantine,” the CRPF chief was quoted as saying by PTI.

"These were dichotomous orders. I have sought a written explanation from the Director Medical of the force on April 26 and have also referred the case to the ADG (Medical)," he added.