Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 18

As many as 25 sailors of the Indian Navy have tested positive for Covid-19 at shore-based logistics hub INS Angre in Mumbai, the headquarters of the Western Naval Command. Naval officials said the 25 sailors were undergoing treatment at INHS Asvini, the naval hospital at Colaba in Mumbai.

Army doc tests +ve

The Indian Army on Saturday reported its ninth Covid case with a woman doctor posted at Dehradun testing positive. Her contacts are being traced. Separately, a batch of Army doctors in Lucknow are being tested and quarantined.

The infected personnel had shown no symptoms but were quarantined after a fellow sailor tested positive a few days back. INS Angre is tasked with supplying logistics to naval units.

“Most (cases) are asymptomatic and have been traced to a single sailor who tested positive on April 7. They all reside in the same accommodation block at INS Angre,” the Navy said. INS Angre has been put under total lockdown and the Navy is carrying out testing of all people staying in the residential accommodation that has been declared a containment zone.

These are the first en bloc cases in the Navy. The Western Naval Command is a strategic establishment as it takes care of India’s maritime interests in the Arabian Sea and parts of the Indian Ocean.

The Navy has said it “remains combat-ready and mission-capable”. Navy warships continue to remain on patrol, covering a vast oceanic swath from the Straits of Malacca to Bab-el-Mandeb near Yemen. Besides, surveillance planes of the Navy are doing daily sorties.