By: AswathyP
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.
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.
