Three people have died in the West Bengal police department even after receiving the second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to the latest survey of the state police.
Around 150 policemen had died of the different COVID strains since the first wave in 2020, but cases of infection and hospitalisation reduced subsequently after policemen were fully vaccinated, according to West Bengal police sources.
According to Bengal police reports, two deaths after the second dose were reported from Eastern Frontier Rifles (EFR) of Bengal police, while one was reported in Siliguri police commissionerate in North Bengal’s Darjeeling district.
Out of around 2.1 lakh policemen who have been totally vaccinated in West Bengal, 2,298 have been infected after receiving the second dose of vaccine. 59 policemen went on to be hospitalised but not a single one was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit.
The deaths of three policemen in the absence of ICU admissions could be due to negligence. EFR, an insurgency tackling force, is mostly posted in the remote parts of the state, where access to healthcare could be minimal. Similarly, the death from the Siliguri police consulate indicates the situation of health care in North Bengal. However, there have only been 33 infections altogether among policemen who had already received the second dose of a COVID vaccine in both Siliguri police commissionerate (which saw 12 infections) and Siliguri Railway Police. There were no hospitalisations among the infected.
Bankura district police saw the most infections, with 240 policemen infected—and none of them being hospitalised. The next highest infection count was in West Midnapore with 200 cases with only five cases of hospitalisation. Around 14 divisions of the police department of the state have so far shown no infection. Prominent among them is the vigilance commission, West Bengal Police Directorate, the directorate of economic offences, Special Task Force (in charge of cracking terrorist networks) and the Rapid Action Force.
The reason could be either that these forces have less public contact—or that they have police personnel with the highest level of immunity. However, the directorate of police security, which looks after the security of chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her nephew and MP, Abhishek Banerjee, has had five infections after the second dose (luckily none that required hospitalisation).
Interestingly, even when the Siliguri police have received one death after the second dose, the Darjeeling hill police in the same district have no infection after the second dose. This is contrary to the large number of reported infections among the Darjeeling hills residents. There are allegations that the hills have the lowest number of COVID tests of common people, with high positive rates among those who are tested—according to political representatives of the Hills. So, while no infections among the fully vaccinated in the Hills is very good news for the police force but mass vaccination in the hill is the need of the hour.
While no similar data from the Kolkata police is available, 25 policemen were infected in Murshidabad and Jangipur police districts where by-elections are going to happen on September 30, including of the much-hyped seat of Bhawanipur which will be contested by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.