Indian Soldiers in Kashmir & on nepal border are suffering from Coronavirus

Pandemic Coronavirus forced the Indian troops to postpone their annual summer exercise. At least 50 percent of troops which were deployed in Kashmir valley and other border areas are suffering from this lethal disease but officers are concealing the facts. They were not granting sick-leaves not providing isolation or quarantine facility to the infected soldiers. Officers have denied the medical examination of soldiers consequently panic is spreading among the troops. A doctor at the rank of Colonel in Kolkata and a Junior Commissioned Officer in Dehradun of the Indian Army has tested positive for the coronavirus. The two new cases detected on Sunday put the total number of cases in the army at three.
The first positive coronavirus case of the army was a 34-year-old soldier in Leh. The Colonel and the Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) tested positive for the virus on Sunday, officials on the condition of anonymity said. The Chief of the Army Staff General MM Naravane, on Friday confirmed that there are currently 8 positive cases of COVID-19 in the Indian Army. "So far, we have only 8 positive cases in the entire Indian Army, of which 2 are doctors and 1 nursing assistant, 4 are responding well to treatment and we had one case in Ladakh, now he is fully cured and has joined duty," Army Chief Gen MM Naravane told news agency ANI, in Kupwara. but he had concealed the facts about troops serving in Kashmir and Nepalese border. The other two defence forces-- air force and navy-- don’t have any positive cases.
 It was the novel coronavirus that delayed a key annual Army drill along the LAC, giving Chinese troops a crucial window to move into and grab strategic positions inside Indian territorial limits — a move that eventually led to a prolonged standoff and the slaying of at least 20 Indian Army personnel.
The weeks-long Galwan standoff, which took a bloody turn today, had begun after Chinese deployment threatened to cut off a strategic Indian road built to link the Daulat Beg Oldie base and the Karakoram Pass with Leh.
After some soldiers caught the infection in March, Indian troops had to postpone their annual summer exercise — the joint drill carried out by Army and Indo-Tibetan Border Police in Sub Sector North (SSN). The postponement helped PLA to move in and block access to a number of locations patrolled by Indian forces in the past.
The exercise, which is carried out every summer by troops from a base in Himachal, mirrors a similar drill carried out by the Chinese troops, government sources told ET reporters.
The forces had to put in place in a host of precautionary measures after a soldier tested positive for the virus sometime around the second week of March. These measures, which included a ban on mass gatherings, forced Indian troops to delay the scheduled exercise.
The Chinese side also put off their drill, but by the time the process resumed they were already in advantageous positions — and they took the Indians by surprise by quick redeployment in the Galwan valley and the Finger Area along Pangong Tso lake.
After finally seeing through the ploy, the Indian Army was forced to break all pandemic protocols and rush troops from Leh to mirror Chinese deployments. But it was already too late and China had by then grabbed the first-mover advantage to position troops well inside Indian territory, according to an ET report by Rahul Tripathi and Manu Pubby.
According to the report, by end-April India was aware of the situation. The first face-off between Indian and Chinese soldiers in Ladakh occurred on May 5-6. During that incident, scores of Indian soldiers — many from the Army and some from the ITBP — were injured and some detained for hours.