Chandigarh, Apr 17 (IANS): To protect police personnel battling the Covid-19 crisis on the frontline, Punjab Police have deployed mobile clinics for their medical examination with 30,567 of the total 43,000 cops on the ground having already been given one thorough check-up.

The Mobile Police Clinics are working in all the seven police ranges and police commissionerates of the state to examine the police personnel, who have been working relentlessly for curfew enforcement and relief operations in three shifts a day, Director General of Police (DGP) Dinkar Gupta said on Friday.

In some of the districts, help is being taken from the civil hospital doctors also to get the police personnel checked for symptoms of flu or other illnesses.

All personnel will be checked repeatedly, every second day, to ensure that there is no health issue among them as a result of possible exposure to the coronavirus, said the DGP.

Gupta said detailed instructions have already been issued by district Senior Superintendents of Police (SSPs).

While all police personnel on duty to enforce the lockdown have been provided with masks, gloves and hand sanitisers, those deployed at the hospital isolation wards or in the vicinity are provided with PPEs or biohazard suits, said the DGP.

So far 2.5 lakh masks, 788 PPE kits and nearly 2.5 lakh hand sanitisers have been distributed.

To ensure sanitization of barricades, chairs and other items which are used by the police on frontline duty, a special Japanese machine which covers an area of 70 feet with 10 per cent sodium hypochlorite solution is being used in Ludhiana and Patiala.