Three police officials test positive for virus.

LAHORE -- After the medical community, the police that came into contact with a large number of people, including potential, suspected and confirmed patients of new coronavirus, without proper Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) and sensitisation have also started contracting the disease.

At least three personnel of Lahore police have tested positive for COVID-19 so far.

The most recent case is a constable serving in Mughalpura who had been deputed at a picket. When he reported the symptoms of the contagion, including cough, fever and flu, he was shifted to Qila Gujjar Singh Police Lines Hospital where doctors diagnosed him with the virus. Another reported case is of a reader of the Naulakha area DSP. After the report, the office was not only disinfected but closed down also.

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The COVID-19 protocol demands that every person who had got into close contact with a confirmed patient should be tested or quarantined for at least two weeks as its general incubation period is being reported to be 2-14 days. However, it is not clear whether the citizens with whom the police officials tested positive came into contact have been traced.

Since Section 144 was imposed in the city to stop the unnecessary gathering of people, accompanied by other measures and a partial lockdown announced a few days later, the police were assigned the main task of implementing the orders.

The police in a hurried manner set up hundreds of picket points in the city and launched a campaign to discourage people from coming out of their homes. During the exercise, the police came into indiscriminate contact with a large part of the population. They were also deployed at hospitals, quarantine centres and for shifting suspected and confirmed patients.

Official figures show that the police have arrested 2599 people so far with regard to implementing Section 144 and partial lockdown. They questioned 81,280 people at pickets and told over 73,800 of them to return because they had to come on the roads without an urgent reason. Besides, they enquired from the driver of 39,660 motorbikes, 10,102 rickshaws, 1,697 cabs, 11,413 cars and 3,589 large vehicles about travelling in the city. The police also took surety bonds from 2,810 citizens with a promise of not...