100 trainees, staff test positive for Covid-19 at Dharwad Police Training School

With over 100 police trainees and staff testing positive for coronavirus in the last four days, the Police Training School located on Kalghatagi road in Dharwad has become a Covid-19 hotspot.

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The spike in cases here has sparked panic among other trainees. The present batch has 380 trainees from different districts of the state.

The school provides basic training to the newly-recruited police constables.

Trainees are provided accommodation in the hostel, which has common bathrooms, toilet and mess. The trainees stay in dormitories.

The training for the batch had commenced in March this year and it was stopped soon after the nationwide lockdown was announced on March 23 and the trainees were sent back to their native places. However, they were summoned back to the school about a month ago as the training had resumed.

Some of the retired police officers who are visiting faculty at the school have refused to go to the training school and conduct classes fearing infection. However, the training had continued with the help of regular instructors.

Meanwhile, Covid-19 test was conducted on those who had developed symptoms and test results confirmed that they had been infected. “The training had continued even after a few trainees and staff members had tested positive for the virus. When there was a spike in the number of positive cases, the training was stopped", said staff at the training school.

Fearing that the infection may spread to others, the higher-ups at the training school have shifted the remaining trainees to a Kalyan mandap on outskirts of Dharwad city. Meanwhile, the sanitisation of the training school is underway.