31 Gazipur policemen infected
At least 31 police personnel have been infected with coronavirus in Gazipur.
Twenty-four of them work at Gacha Police Station under Gazipur Metropolitan Police (GMP) while the rest at Kaliganj Police Station under district police.
Of the infected, one tested positive on April 13, three on April 16 and the rest tested positive yesterday, said Khairuzzaman, civil surgeon of the district.
Health workers are collecting samples of other police personnel who came into contact with the infected ones. The samples will be sent to the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) for tests, he added.
Of the 24 in GMP, 21 are men and have been kept in isolation inside Gacha Police Station. Three female officers have been sent into home-quarantine, said Anwar Hossain, GMP commissioner.
Speaking to The Daily Star, Gacha Police Station's Officer-in-Charge Ismail Hossain said a man at a building adjacent to the police station had tested positive for coronavirus.
The authorities concerned locked down the building and collected samples of all the residents. A GMP official also lived in that building and tested positive, he added.
Then the 23 police personnel, who came into contact with the policeman from the building, were infected gradually, added OC Ismail.
He also said some other buildings adjacent to the police station were also locked down. Gacha Police Station is now functioning with the help of other stations.
Meanwhile, the seven policemen from Kaliganj Police Station used to be on-duty at a check post on the edge of the area bordering with Narayanganj district, one of the worst-hit districts.
Kaliganj OC Mizanul Haque said that since the coronavirus infection rate in Narayanganj is very high, the seven may have been infected at the check post.
They had to go to hospitals for different purposes, so they might have even contracted the disease from hospitals, he added.
The infected ones have been kept in isolation in the station, added the OC.
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