Dampara Police Lines turning into Covid-19 hotspot

Despite a number of measures taken by the authorities to stop transmission of Covid-19 among law enforcers, Chattogram Metropolitan Police (CMP) Dampara Police Lines has become a coronavirus hotspot now, said police officials.

According to officials, in most cases the infected police personnel had no major symptoms except fever before being tested positive for coronavirus.

Close contact with the public while performing field duty, congested living condition in police barrack, not maintaining personal hygiene and lack of proper safety gears have put the personnel of CMP at high risk of being infected.

Till May 13 night, a total of 44 police personnel including the assistant commissioner (force) of CMP tested Covid-19 positive while 137 were sent for isolation and quarantine in different places assigned by CMP, said police sources.

Apart from that, a civil staff and a cook of police barracks were infected while three family members of police personnel also tested positive.

On Wednesday, 13 police personnel including an OC of Sadarghat Police Station tested positive while on Saturday, six police personnel including a traffic sergeant of CMP port division, an assistant sub-inspector and four constables tested coronavirus positive. The sergeant's wife and brother also tested positive the same day.

Meanwhile, five police personnel who were diagnosed with the virus left the hospital after their recovery.

After transmission started in Dampara Police Lines on the first week of April, authorities arranged three places including two convention centres in port city's GEC area and a private hotel at Chawakbazar area for police personnel with an aim to maintain social distancing.

Additional Deputy Commissioner (Headquarters) of CMP Md Moinul Islam told The Daily Star, "Over 7,000 members of CMP are performing duty across the city in this critical time and as per the duty ratio, the number of Covid-19 patients is not significant."

"We have done some stratification to stop the transmission and taken some strict measures to keep the infection number low," the ADC added.

ADC Moinul said, "We are trying our best to aware our police force who live in barracks to maintain social distance and hygiene at all time."

According to CMP, six police members are in isolation unit and eight in flu corner of Dampara Police Lines Hospital, one in Chattogram Field Hospital, 34 are in CMP School, six in Mansurabad Police Lines, and 12 are in Premier University Dormitories for quarantine. Apart from that 70 police of different police stations are in quarantine.

CMP sources said a traffic police constable, aged around 50, of north division of CMP traffic barracks first tested positive last month. After the detection, CMP separated those police personnel aged over 50 from the force and stopped assigning them duty considering the high risk of infection.

In police barracks, basins have been installed with soap in every floor while electric hot water pots were also set up for the policemen. Apart from that egg, milk, and healthy food are distributed among 1,800 police personnel every day.

However, field level police personnel said avoiding public contact while on duty is the main challenge as people have started going out of their houses. They also alleged that the number of protective gears including mask, hand gloves and PPE is not enough.

Seeking anonymity, a sergeant of traffic port zone told this correspondent, "We are provided with just two face masks, a bottle of hand sanitiser and one set of PPE for use. We personally sourced face masks, hand sanitiser and gloves to keep ourselves safe as the items provided were not enough."

A traffic constable also said that they were just provided a few masks and one set of hand gloves from the office.

The higher authorities instructed them to wear raincoats for safety but it's quite impossible to perform an eight-hour duty wearing raincoat under the scorching sun, he said.

"We heard that we will be given PPE within few days," he added. A nayek of CMP who lives in a dormitory said, "Most members of police are frightened but they are reluctant to maintain social distance inside the barracks at all times."

Mostak Ahmed, additional commissioner (traffic) of CMP said, "We have arranged protective gear for all traffic police personnel and we are distributing those."

Amir Jafar, deputy commissioner (headquarters) of CMP, told The Daily Star, "We asked the police stations' officers-in-charge to keep stations neat and clean and maintain all hygiene and distancing directives."