New Delhi, Apr 28 (IANS): Twelve more Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel deployed in Delhi were declared coronavirus positive on Tuesday, taking the number of infected force personnel to 46 across the country.

All the 12 personnel belong to the 31st Battalion of the CRPF and are deputed in Mayur Vihar in East Delhi. They are quarantined at a Delhi government centre in Mandawali which is a few kilometres from the base of their battalion.

With the swab report of the personnel confirming them COVID-19 positive, the number of total infected troops of the CRPF in Delhi touched 45. One of the CRPF personnel of 194 Battalion of its Rapid Action Force (RAF) was detected COVID-19 positive in Ahmedabad in Gujarat earlier this month.

The total count of COVID-19 infected personnel in CRPF has now touched 46, excluding the death of a 55-year-old Sub-Inspector of the 3.5 lakh strong central paramilitary force -- the country's largest Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) or paramilitary wing mandated to provide internal security in the country and for conducting anti-Naxal and counter-terrorist operations apart from rendering regular law and order duties. The Sub-Inspector was part of a group of infected CRPF personnel of 31st Battalion.

Of the group 15 were found positive for the dreaded virus on April 26 that include one Assistant Sub-Inspector and four head constables from the same battalion whose nine personnel had contracted COVID-19 on April 24.

The personnel of the 31st unit of CRPF underwent tests after a head constable who visited the battalion recently tested positive for the virus. The Head Constable, who was working as a nursing assistant, is part of the 162nd battalion deployed in Kupwara in Jammu & Kashmir and was in Noida on leave.

The Head Constable was asked to report to the 31st battalion for testing and he tested Covid-19 positive on April 21. Soon after the nursing assistant was found positive for the deadly disease, all his contact personnel were shifted to a quarantine centre. The information came at a time when the deadly virus has already snuffed out 54 lives in the national capital, besides infecting over 3,000 people, and India recorded 937 deaths and over 22,000 infected patients.