New Delhi
Hundreds of Indian police have tested positive for the novel coronavirus in recent days, raising alarm among an overstretched force as it attempts to enforce the world’s largest lockdown.
Some 3 million police officials are trying to ensure that the vast majority of India’s 1.3 billion people stay home, with TV footage early in the crisis showing police beating back migrant workers as they tried to board city buses to reach their villages, making a mockery of social distancing. India has been under lockdown since March 25 and has confirmed nearly 50,000 coronavirus cases and some 1,694 deaths.
A senior officer in the western state of Maharashtra said the number of cases had nearly doubled in the police force there in the last week. Maharashtra, the hardest-hit state, has reported a total 15,525 cases as of Tuesday.
