Chandigarh, May 17 (IANS): Even as eight of the 16 Covid positive policemen in Punjab were discharged from hospitals on Sunday after full recovery, Punjab Police continued to scale up its protective and welfare measures for personnel on the frontline duty.

It added 20 district quarantine centres for its personnel in the past one week.

With this, the total number of such centres, notified by the Department of Health and Family Welfare, has gone up to 78, Director General of Police Dinkar Gupta said.

He said of the 16 Covid police personnel in hospitals as on May 14, eight were discharged.

The DGP said a total of 110 cops from district police and 89 from the armed police are currently in quarantine at the district quarantine centres set up by the department, after coming in contact with infected persons while on duty.

Another 90 district police personnel and 69 armed police personnel are under home quarantine, taking the total number of cops now in quarantine to 349, from the earlier 615, of whom 266 had completed the mandatory quarantine period.

To ensure strict adherence with all protocols and uncompromising care for the well-being of the cops at the quarantine centres, close coordination is maintained with police nodal officers of the districts and doctors, said the DGP.