Forty-seven employees of private television channel Independent have been put under home-quarantine after one of their colleagues tested positive for coronavirus.

“This is to inform everyone that one of our colleagues in Independent Television has tested positive for COVID 19. He’s in institutional quarantine now and recovering fast,” its Editor-in-Chief M Shamsur Rahman said in a video message.

He said they have also identified people having close contact with the patient. “They’ve been sent on home-quarantine. My colleague who has tested positive attended office on March 26 last,” he said, adding that no-one of other colleagues is showing symptoms of infection.

Meanwhile, a press release of the private TV channel said the employee who was diagnosed with coronavirus was given leave on March 26 after he caught fever.

He tested positive two days ago after he contacted the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), it said.

Mentioning that journalists and media professionals everywhere are exposed to professional hazards, Shamsur urged all to stay indoors and follow government directives.