As many as 217 members of Bangladesh Police have been diagnosed with the coronavirus till Wednesday

Some 122 members of Bangladesh Police have tested positive for Covid-19 in the last 48 hours, according to sources at the Police Headquarters.

With this, the number of cops infected with the novel coronavirus in the country has climbed to 217.

Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Dr Benazir Ahmed, in a video conference on Wednesday, asked all units of Bangladesh Police to work maintaining proper safety measures for themselves.

"Police officials work on the frontline during crisis like this. That's why they are more susceptible to getting infected," former IGP of Police AKM Shahidul Haque told The Business Standard.

"All police personnel assigned to ensure home quarantine of coronavirus patients should wear personal protective equipment all the time during their duty," he added.

Police officials also fear that officers who live in police barracks are at a high risk of infection since they live in close proximity with one another.

According to Police Headquarters, 117 members of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police have been infected with the virus so far. Among them, 16 have tested positive in the last 24 hours.

In Chattogram, 3 members of the Chattogram Metropolitan Police (CMP) have got infected so far. One of them have tested positive in the last 24 hours.

Meanwhile, 16 members of Narayanganj district police have tested positive. Among them, 3 have been diagnosed with the virus in the last 24 hours.

In Gopalganj, 18 policemen have got infected with the virus so far. Among them, one has tested positive in the last 24 hours.

In Gazipur, 26 members of the Gazipur Metropolitan Police (GMP) have tested positive for Covid-19 so far.

The Armed Police Battalion has one infected member. The Telecom and Information Management unit of PHQ and River Police have one each.

The Anti Terrorism Unit of police has one infected while Special branch of police (SB) has 5.

As per our sources, 777 policemen have been home quarantined while 278 members have completed their quarantine period.

As of Wednesday, 3,772 people have got infected with the novel coronavirus in the country while 120 of them have died.