By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 25 Nov: Even as Covid-19 cases have been decreasing in Uttarakhand over the past few days, 11 IFS (Indian Forest Service) officers were found corona positive at the Forest Research Institute (FRI), here, today. All these officers had recently come to FRI for a mid-term training. In all, 48 officers had come to the FRI for the mid-term training. One part of the training had been conducted in Lucknow, from where they had gone to Delhi before coming to Dehradun.
As part of the protocol, Covid tests had been conducted on them while they were in Delhi.
As information regarding 8 of these officers testing Corona positive reached the FRI, all the 48 officers were isolated. They were tested once again in Dehradun, where three more officers tested positive.
Senior officials of the Health and Medicine Department of Uttarakhand claim that the department would increase surveillance on Corona once again. Meanwhile, the FRI administration will test all those who had come in contact with these officers since their arrival in Dehradun.
They had been tested in Delhi, yesterday, while the samples at the FRI were collected this morning.
It may be recalled that during the second wave of Corona in Uttarakhand, last year, the first positive cases were detected at the FRI amongst the IFS trainees. That had led to a complete lockdown of the FRI campus. The Campus was sealed by the district administration for a few days on 19 March, last year.
Despite the Covid protocols still being in place, restrictions have been lifted and not enough Corona tests are being conducted in Uttarakhand and on the borders. With the number of fresh Corona cases rising, once again, in some states like Maharashtra, the Uttarakhand Administration can’t afford to be negligent with regard to the safety measures related to Corona!
According to the Health Bulletin issued by the state health department this evening, a total of 8 Corona positive cases were detected locally in Uttarakhand in the past 24 hours. Those detected with Corona virus infection today were Tibetans and, as a result, both the FRI campus and the Tibetan Colony at Sahastradhara Road have been cordoned off by the district administration for a period of 14 days to begin with.
With these numbers, the total number of active Corona cases in Uttarakhand at present has gone up to 157, and in the past 24 hours, 31 cases have recovered from the infection, too. A total of 7548 test samples were sent for testing today.