Nobody Is Safe! Covid-19 Hits Indian Navy As 26 Sailors In Western Naval Command Test Positive

At least 26 Indian Navy personnel have tested positive for coronavirus at the Western Naval Command in Mumbai, in the first case of a major outbreak of the deadly disease in the Indian armed forces.

According to a report by news agency PTI, all the infected sailors were serving at the INS Angre, a shore-based logistics and support establishment, and they are undergoing treatment at a Navy hospital, official sources said.

"The number of infected sailors is 26," a source told PTI.

The Navy has launched a large-scale contact tracing operation to track the people who may have come in contact with the sailors.

Indian Navy

The outbreak of the infection in the Indian Navy comes at a time when a number of navies globally are grappling with the pandemic. A sailor on board the USS Theodore Roosevelt, an aircraft carrier, reported as many as 500 cases of the virus. The French Navy has also been hit hard by the pandemic.

The sources said 25 of the infected sailors were staying at a building having single-room accommodations and barracks within the INS Angre complex, while one sailor was living with his mother in his own house.

The sailor's mother has also tested positive.

The Navy is carrying out virus testing of all people staying in the residential accommodation and it has been declared as a "containment zone", while INS Angre was put under total isolation as per the prescribed protocol of apex medical research body ICMR.

BCCL

"Most of these are asymptomatic and have been traced to a single sailor who was tested positive on April 7. They all reside in the same accommodation block at INS Angre," it said.

Sources said the top defence ministry officials as well as the Naval headquarters are keeping an eye on the incident.

So far, the Indian Army has reported eight cases of the deadly virus.

The number of coronavirus cases has reached 3,323 in Maharashtra, the most affected state both in terms of infections and deaths, and 1,707 in Delhi.