Odisha: Khurda SP tests positive
SP Ajay Pratap Swain’s office in Khurda being sanitised
BHUBANESWAR: Khurda SP Ajay Pratap Swain tested positive for Covid-19 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 500 police personnel of different ranks have so far been infected by Covid across the state, Swain is the first SP to contract the virus.
“I am asymptomatic and well. After consulting doctors, I have placed myself under home isolation. I will consult the doctors again after two or three days. If they advise, I will get myself admitted to a Covid hospital,” Ajay Pratap told TOI.
The SP’s office has been temporarily shut for sanitisation. Additional SP K B Jena has been assigned as SP in-charge for the time being.
On July 28, a woman constable at the SP’s office had tested positive for the virus. “Along with my staff, I, too, had undergone the RT-PCR test. My report returned positive. The constable was in charge of the VHF control in my office and I had held the same VHF set once. It might be the source of my infection,” Ajay Pratap said. His minister brother tweeted a wish for his speedy recovery.
The SP’s infection has sent other district officials and police into a tizzy as he had held several crime review meetings in his office in the past four days.
Besides, Ajay Pratap was among the officials who welcomed new Khurda collector Sanat Kumar Mohanty at the latter’s office on Tuesday.
Collector Mohanty said he would undergo a Covid test. The collector, however, did not specify if he and his staff would stay in isolation till the test results are back.