The Philippine National Police (PNP) will be putting up more quarantine facilities and testing centers for its personnel as the number of infected policemen continue to rise.
At the last count a total of 1,298 cases were recorded when 59 more cops tested positive from the coronavirus.
PNP chief Gen. Archie Francisco Gamboa said the quarantine facilities and testing centers will be put up in areas where there was a reported spike in the number of policemen infected by the virus.
Based on the data from the PNP Health Service, CALABARZON (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon) regional police and Davao regional police appear to be the emerging cause of concerns due to high cases of infection in the past days.
On Sunday, a total of 130 policemen from CALABARZON tested positive and on Wednesday, two policemen from the Davao regional police were also confirmed to have Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19).
“PNP is now preparing to establish more quarantine centers and testing hubs as we improve our healthcare support mechanism for our police frontliners and personnel who are exposed to the risk of contamination while fulfilling their duties,” said Gamboa.
Currently, the PNP has one testing center at Camp Crame and the testing center for policemen in Central Visayas is yet to be completed and approved. Gamboa earlier said that they are also planning to set up a testing center in Davao City.
The PNP is currently operating and managing seven quarantine and testing facilities as part of a supportive healthcare system for police frontliners in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Quarantine Facility in Ultra Stadium in Pasig City is now catering to 103 patients with remaining 29 available room capacity, and 107 patients are now at the Philippine International Convention Quarantine Center with remaining 186 available rooms.
The NHQ PNP COVID-19 Patient Care Center (Kiangan Billeting Center) has already admitted 25 PNP personnel with 17 rooms available. The 46-bed capacity Taekwondo quarters in Camp Crame admitted 8 personnel while all rooms are available as of now at the Transformation Oval Quarantine Facility.
“We will coordinate as soon as possible with the DOH and local health units to ensure safe and orderly implementation,” said Gamboa.
Based on the PNP data, a total of 529 policemen have already fully-recovered, some of them were already sent back to work after being cleared fit for duty.
On the other hand, there are 640 probable cases while 1,387 policemen are classified as suspected COVID cases.