Mumbai, May 10 (IANS): As six policemen succumbed to Covid-19 and another 648 testing positive so far, Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh's appeal for solidarity with the police force evoked a massive response from commoners to leaders and celebrities, here on Sunday.

Honouring the khaki-clad frontline warriors, Deshmukh put up the Maharashtra Police logo as his DP on all social media accounts like WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc., and urged citizens to follow suit.

A flood of leaders and celebs followed suit including Nationalist Congress Party's Water Resources Minister Jayant Patil, NCP MP Supriya Sule, and other leaders from the Maha Vikas Aghadi.

There were industrialists like Anand Mahindra, cricketers Virat Kohli and Dhawal Kulkarni. A host of Bollywood personalities including Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Dia Mirza, Akshay Kumar, Madhuri Dixit-Nene, Riteish and Genelia Deshmukh, Ajay Devgan, Tisca Chopra, Arjun Kapoor, Hina Khan, Varun Dhawan, Bhagyashree, Siddharth Malhotra, Mrunal Thakur, Suniel Shetty, Pooja Hegde, Gulshan Grover, Rohit Roy, and Arjun Bawal.

There were also Jatin Pandit and son Rahul, Karan Johar, Sajid Nadiadwala, Talat Aziz, Penaz Masani, Neeta Lulla, Lubna Adam and Shaurya Pratap Singh among others.

Deshmukh offered his condolences on today's demise of Assistant Sub-Inspector Dattatraya Kalgutkar of Vinoba Bhave Nagar Police Station who succumbed to Covid-19.

"It is exemplary that the entire 2.25 lakh-strong police force is working for long hours through what is one of the biggest public health challenges we are facing. To those who say this will affect the morale of the police, I want to affirm that in difficult times, the efficiency of police has in fact doubled," said Deshmukh.

However, he said it was essential to underline to the police that they are "not alone" in this war against the virus, and "the citizens feel as strongly about it as me", and accordingly changed his social media DP.