The Tamil Nadu police department had offered its salute and paid tribute to the police officer who died of COVID-19, becoming the first officer in the state to succumb to the virus amid the containment strategies to curb the spread.

According to the reports, 47-year-old Balamurali, who was a law and order inspector attached to the Mambalam police limit in Chennai, has died due to the viral infection on Wednesday. He tested positive for the pandemic in the first week of June following which he was kept under quarantine at the Mahanadhi hostel on the premises of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

After his health deteriorated, he was moved to the Rajiv Gandhi Government Hospital in the city for further treatments. While the police department had arranged for the medical team to treat him, top police officials including city commissioner Viswanathan had procured an expensive medicine for his recovery. 

However, his health had deteriorated and worsened last Friday, and he was declared dead on the evening hours of Wednesday - June 17th after which his body was buried at the Kannamapet burial site with accord to the COVID-19 burial guidelines. He was the first victim in the state police department claimed by the virus, which disturbed the entire department.

On Thursday, the state police department paid tribute to the deceased officer in Chennai during which Tamil Nadu's DGP Tripathy, Chennai police commissioner AK Viswanathan, and higher officials paid their floral tributes and the police officers observed two minutes silence remembering the deceased officer. 

His death has marked the vulnerability being faced by the police officers in the state in the wake of the Coronavirus outbreak. The police department has become one of the most affected frontline workers in the state as nearly 800 police officers had been tested positive for the virus of which about 250 have been recovered. The deceased officer Balamurali, a native of Vellore district, was surviving by his wife and two children.