The Border Security Force (BSF) said on Friday that 30 more of its personnel have tested positive for  the coronavirus  24 are from Tripura and six from Delhi.

In a statement, the BSF said, “All of them are under the best available medical care at AIIMS (Jhajjar) and at G B Pant Hospital (Agartala).”It also reported using water cannons for quick sanitization of the buildings and frequent sanitization of BSF personnel while maintaining all the Covid 19 protocols.

Talking about the fresh cases in Tripura, Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb said that all of them were reported in the 86th battalion headquarters of the BSF located at Ambassa in Dhalai district.

“ALERT 24 persons from 86th-Bn BSF Ambassa found COVID-19 POSITIVE. Total COVID-19 patients in Tripura now stands: 88 total cases, active cases: 86, discharged: 02. There is no POSITIVE case among civilians. Stay Safe,” he tweeted.

“22 Covid-19 positive cases reported from 138 battalion BSF Ambassa including a lady and three children. Samples of all 298 BSF personnel in 138 battalions have been collected and tested. In the same campus, 86 battalion of BSF is also located. At present, 673 samples of BSF are under screening from both these battalions at the Ambassa and other camps,” said S K Rakesh, Assistant CS of Tripura.

He reported 30 persons including doctors, nurses and paramedics are being specially trained for dealing with Covid-19.

Two BSF personnel had fallen to Covid-19 on Thursday. A Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) jawan deployed at Mumbai airport also died due to the disease, taking the total Covid-19 cases in central paramilitary forces to over 500.

In another major development yesterday, a combination of Indian Army and IAF helicopters and Indian Army troopswere pressed into service to undertake a daring evacuation of the crew of IAFhelicopters and Air Dispatch crew, stranded on the icy heights of North Sikkimdue to an emergency landing of IAF helicopters in a remote and inaccessiblearea.

Evacuation of the four IAF crew and Air Dispatch personnel from a very highaltitude emergency landing site, braving snow blizzards and undulating ground,which required synergy between the helicopters and ground based rescue parties,stands testimony to the spirit of the Armed Forces of India. The rescueoperation demanded pushing to limits, both man and machine, for the successfulextrication of the stranded crew.

The stranded military personnel braved inclement weather conditions for severalhours before being evacuated. Immediately on receipt of information, on 7th May2020, Indian Army rescue columns with personnel of ITBPs too, moved on foot,traversing dangerous terrain in bad weather, to the helicopter landing site toevacuate the individuals and provide medical aid, for which a doctor of theITBP also accompanied.

Later, a combination of Army and Air Force helicopters were launched atthe stroke of dawn on today, who executed a daring landing on an unpreparedground at an altitude of 15500 ft, and rescued the stranded personnel.