CRPF Jawan Succumbs to COVID-19, Death Toll in Central Force Now Eight

New Delhi, Jun 27: A 43-year-old Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) official succumbed to the novel coronavirus on Saturday taking the total number of deaths in the country's largest paramilitary force to eight, officials said. This is also the 24th death among the five Central Armed Police Forces -- CRPF, BSF, CISF, ITBP and SSB.

They said the constable rank official, posted as a driver in the administration wing of the CRPF headquarters at Lodhi Road here, had been suffering from a chronic kidney problem and hypertension.

The jawan was found COVID-19 positive on Friday and he breathed his last at a Delhi hospital on Saturday, they said. The personnel hailed from Bihar, the officials said. The 3.25 lakh personnel strong CRPF accounts for over 1,000 COVID-19 cases, out of more than 3,300 cases reported till now in these five CAPFs and two other central forces -- the NSG and the NDRF.

As per the latest data accessed by PTI, there have been over 868 coronavirus cases in the BSF, 733 in the CISF, 306 in the ITBP, 184 in the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), 139 in the SSB and 70 in the National Security Guard (NSG).

Out of these, about 2,000 personnel have been cured and only about 1,280 are under treatment at various health facilities across the country, the data showed. These forces have reported 24 deaths from the disease till now.

The CISF has had seven fatalities while five deaths have been reported in the BSF and two each in the ITBP and the SSB. These central forces, with a combined strength of about 10 lakh personnel, render a variety of security duties, law and order management, border guarding, counter-insurgency and counter-terrorist operations and disaster rescue and relief under the command of the Union home ministry.