Odisha: Khurda SP tests Covid-19 positive, had attended new collector’s welcome meeting on Tuesday

BHUBANESWAR: The Khurda superintendent of police (SP) Ajay Pratap Swain tested positive for Covid-19 virus on Thursday. Ajay Pratap, who is the younger brother of state food supplies and consumer welfare minister Ranendra Pratap Swain, has been advised by doctors to stay in home isolation.
While around 600 police personnel of different ranks have so far been infected by the Covid across the state, Swain is the first SP to transmit the virus. “I am asymptomatic and well. After consulting doctors, I have gone into home isolation. I will consult the doctors again after two or three days. If they advise, I will be admitted to Covid hospital,” Ajay Pratap told TOI.
His office has been temporarily shut for sanitization. Additional superintendent of police K B Jena has been assigned to remain as in-charge SP for the time being.
On July 28, a woman constable at the SP office had tested Covid positive. “I along with other staff members of my office had undergone RT-PCR test. My swab report came positive. The woman constable was in-charge of the VHF control in my office. I had held the same VHF set once. Perhaps I got infected after touching the VHF set,” Ajay Pratap said. His minister brother Ranendra Pratap tweeted and prayed for his speedy recovery.
The SP’s infection has sent other district and police officials into a tizzy as he had held several crime review meetings in his office in the last four days. Besides, Ajay Pratap was present among other officials to welcome new district collector Sanat Kumar Mohanty at the latter’s office in Khurda on Tuesday.
Collector Mohanty said he and all those, who were present around Ajay Pratap, would undergo RT-PCR test. The collector, however, did not confirm whether he and his office staff members would stay in isolation till completion of their Covid test. “We will abide by the government’s protocol and subject ourselves to Covid test,” Mohanty said.
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