The Philippine National Police (PNP) has recorded a sudden rise of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in its personnel which is consistent with the upsurge of infection rate that was recorded by the Department of Health.
PNP spokesman Col. Rhoderick Augustus Alba said that from zero case on Dec. 24, the new cases started to rise until they recorded 52 active cases on Sunday, Jan. 2.
But Alba said the PNP is ready to address the problem and is also constantly reminding its personnel to protect themselves from infection.
"The PNP is prepared for contingencies arising from the possibility of other regions being placed on heightened COVID-19 alert levels," said Alba.
As of Sunday, the PNP has 42, 285 cases of infection since last year.
For his part, PNP chief Gen. Dionardo Carlos said he had already instructed all police commanders to coordinate with the local government units for the implementation of measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
"The number of single daily COVID-19 cases has increased significantly in the past days. Health authorities are also monitoring the spread of the Omicron variant that already reached 14 cases in the opening days of the New Year," said Carlos.
“The PNP will not take this lightly even if some areas don’t have any confirmed transmission yet of the Omicron variant. Placing NCR under Alert Level 3 can help us to control the movement and unnecessary gathering of people,” he added.
Carlos said among the measures that they would work on with the LGUs is the implementation of granular lockdown.
"It has been proven effective in focusing to specific areas with high coronavirus infections. In this case, the PNP can concentrate on beefing up the security," said Carlos.
"We remind the public anew not to be complacent. Wearing of face mask and observing physical distancing are still the best practices in preventing the further spread of a virus," he added.