Four employees of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) and one employee of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) have tested positive for Covid-19 recently.
Prof Nasima Sultana, additional director (admin) of the DGHS, told Dhaka Tribune that after their colleagues tested positive for Covid-19, eight others including IEDCR Director Prof Meerjady Sabrina Flora and Chief of Virology Lab Prof ASM Alamgir, have been sent to quarantine.
She said, all the employees of IEDCR have been asked to work from home after the incident.
A technologist, a clerk, a cleaner and a gardener of IEDCR have tested positive for coronavirus.
Sources at DGHS said they first detected Covid-19 in a cleaner, who has a relative working at the IEDCR. This DGHS employee used to visit him often and later he also tested positive.
Following the findings, nine officials and employees of IEDCR were put in an institutional quarantine facility and one of them was released recently.
Sources said some of the infected employees were involved in sample collection. The infected are under treatment at a hospital.
Till Thursday, the coronavirus pandemic has taken the lives of 60 people and infected at least 1,572 in Bangladesh.