New Delhi
21 sailors of the Indian Navy in Mumbai have been tested positive for coronavirus. The sailors have been quarantined at a naval hospital in the city. This is the first set of coronavirus or COVID-19 cases being reported in the navy. A massive operation to trace people who may have come in contact with the sailors is on.
The Navy has made it clear that no officer or sailor serving on board any warship or submarine has been infected.
All 21 sailors reside in the accommodation at INS Angre, a shore-based depot that provides logistical and administrative support to naval operations of the Western Naval Command. Most of the cases are asymptomatic – cases that do not show symptoms of the infection – and have been traced to a sailor who was tested positive on April 7.
After the cases were detected, the entire block was immediately put under quarantine, the Navy said in a statement this morning.
The Navy is looking into the possibility of the men having moved around within the Navy facilities for essential duties even though the city is otherwise under lockdown. The Naval dockyard in Mumbai, which houses the bulk of the sword arm of the Western Naval Command including its warships and submarines, lies just a few hundred metres away from INS Angre.
The sailors, who have tested positive for COVID-19, are now in quarantine INHS Ashwini, a naval hospital in Mumbai.
INS Angre is also known as the Naval Barracks and provides various facilities to all ships and units based at Mumbai. The shore-based INS Angre is like a mothership which controls and oversees the functioning of a wide array of diverse units and facilities.
