Coronavirus Infection: Crowded barracks put cops at risk
Despite protective measures taken by authorities, the number of infection in the police force has been on a rapid rise with around one hundred officials across the country testing positive for Covid-19 daily over the last one week.
According to Police Headquarter (PHQ) officials, overcrowded accommodation in police barracks and mismanagement of unit chiefs are to blame for the sorry state of the force.
As of yesterday, the total number of infected case reached 1,756, which was 1,549 the previous day, according to PHQ data.
Of the infected cops, 810 are from Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP). Only 1,153 police officials were infected across the country just a week ago on May 5.
Around 1,933 police personnel were sent into quarantine over the last 24 hours. Around 2,870 officials were in quarantine till yesterday, which now stands 4,803. So far, 165 police personnel have recovered while seven have died from the infection, shows the PHQ database.
Speaking to The Daily Star yesterday, a PHQ high official said that they took preparations in January to create awareness and had a standard operational procedure (SOP) about how to fight the spread of the virus sent to all police units.
"But some unit chiefs, especially in DMP, have failed to follow the SOP. PHQ has already started taking action against the officials," said the official.
Shafiqul Islam, commissioner of DMP, however, blamed overcrowded barracks for the sorry state.
Around 28,000 police personnel are living in barracks in Dhaka with around 30 officials in every single room, Shafiqul told The Daily Star yesterday.
"We have tried to provide all protection equipment to officials, brief them daily to follow health directives properly. We have tried to ease their crowd by shifting them in different schools and residential hotels," said the commissioner.
"But one or two may not follow directives and spread the virus to their colleagues while living in the barracks. It is totally impossible for us to check every ones activities individually," he explained.
The DMP boss further expressed hope that necessary steps have been taken and created a roster system for their force, in which only half of its members will be out on the field at a time for a week.
"We hope the infection rate will start to reduce now," he added.
On the other hand, police has already booked Impulse Hospital to treat its infected members in Dhaka as the Central Police Hospital is struggling to deal with the increased number of Covid-19 positive police personnel.
Instruction have already given to unit chiefs and specially range deputy inspector general (DIGs) to book a hospital in every division of the country for treatment of police personnel, said PHQ officials.
Sohel Rana, assistant inspector general of PHQ, told The Daily Star yesterday that their officials have to attend a huge number of public order situations daily, which include taking the sick to hospitals and the burial of Covid-19 victims.
"Police often did not get the chance to arrange a PPE in an emergency and get into close contact with people, which is a big reason behind this high infection rate," he said, adding that they have to live messes and barracks with a number of their colleagues, for which the virus spread among force officials so rapidly.
"But we have now taken steps, including better treatment facilities, which is police officials are recovering fast than before" the AIG said.
COVID-19 IN PRISONS
Meanwhile, the Covid-19 infection rate was also found to be increasing in the overcrowded prisons. On May 9, only 98 jail staffers and inmates were in quarantine. The number rose to 317 yesterday.
Meanwhile, 23 prison guards and two inmates have tested Covid-19 positive till yesterday, Monzur Hossain, assistant inspector general (admin) at the Department of Prisons, told The Daily Star.
The two infected inmates are from Panchagarh district jail, he said, adding that another inmate of Dhaka Central Jail, who tested positive earlier, was released from jail yesterday after the end of his term.
The prisons department earlier arranged isolation units for inmates inside jails in Kishoreganj, Madaripur, Pirojpur, Sylhet, Feni and Dinajpur districts, according to a home ministry report.
Sources at the prison department said there are around 85,000 prisoners against the capacity of 41,244 in the country's 68 jails.
The home ministry, after taking opinions from the law ministry, recently ordered the prisons authorities to release 2,884 inmates, who were jailed for one year or less for minor offences, to ease the accommodation crisis.
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