60 police, RAB members test positive for Covid-19 in Narayanganj

Sixty members of the Bangladesh Police and the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) have tested positive for coronavirus in Narayanganj. 

Seventeen of them are members of RAB-11, and include four senior officials. Forty three are from the police, confirmed RAB-11 Media Officer Senior Assistant Director M Alep Uddin and District Superintendent of Narayanganj Police Md Zayedul Alam.    

Another 17 members of the elite force have been kept in isolation on suspicion of being infected by the virus, he said, adding that their samples have been sent to the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), Dhaka, for testing.

The district superintendent of Narayanganj Police said all 43 infected members of Narayanganj District Police including two inspectors, seven sub-inspectors, and three assistant sub-inspector, have been kept in isolation.     

Samples of 221 members of RAB-11 were sent to Dhaka for testing recently, and so far, 17 out of 90 samples have tested positive for Covid-19. The rest of the test reports have not come as yet, said the media officer. 

At present, a total of 34 RAB members are in isolation after testing positive for Covid-19, and are being treated for it. These infected members did not show any symptoms of the virus, he added.   

Three members of the battalion tested positive for the virus last week. The rest of them were infected later, gradually.

The RAB officials and members have been delivering food to the doorsteps of poor people in different areas of the district while maintaining social distancing. They were delivering food even before the area had been identified as a hotspot of the virus. 

The members had obviously come in contact with coronavirus infected families and eventually got infected. However, all the activities will continue until the coronavirus is eradicated, the media officer said.