THE PHILIPPINE National Police (PNP) reported that 37 more police officers contracted the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), bringing the total number of cases among its ranks to 942.
As of Tuesday evening, the PNP Health Service said 19 of the new cases are from the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7); 12 from National Capital Region Police Office; two from PRO-4A (Calabarzon) and one each from PRO-3 (Central Luzon), PRO-6 (Western Visayas), National Headquarters and the PNP Finance Service.
Meanwhile, 419 PNP personnel have already recovered from the disease while the death toll stands at nine.
The PNP Health Service is also monitoring 657 probable cases and 1,258 suspected cases.
The PNP has put in place safety measures to prevent Covid-19 from spreading among its ranks.
PNP chief Gen. Archie Francisco Gamboa said the Covid-19 has changed their daily lives such as doing away with the traditional formation because of the ban on mass gatherings.
“The outbreak of the Covid-19 disease has posed great challenges globally and affected people’s daily lives and gave us far-reaching consequences beyond the spread of the disease,” he said.
In mid-March, the government imposed an enhanced community quarantine on the island of Luzon to prevent Covid-19 from spreading.
It was downgraded to a less stringent modified enhanced community quarantine in the middle of May and later to general community quarantine in June to reopen the economy which was shattered for nearly two months because of the lockdown.
Lt. Gen. Camilo Pancratius Cascolan, PNP deputy chief for administration, said they will limit face to face transactions among civilians and their personnel at Camp Crame in Quezon City and other police offices across the country.
He said copies of application forms for various transactions in different units such as the Firearms and Explosives Unit, Highway Patrol Group, Crime Laboratory, and Health Service will be uploaded on their respective websites.
“Applicants can download and sign the documents online,” Cascolan told reporters in a phone interview.
He said they will inform applicants of their schedule to limit the number of people entering their camps.
They will also implement a drive-thru scheme where civilians who have vehicles can just drop their transaction forms in drop boxes at their offices which will be collected by their personnel at the end of each day.
Cascolan said they have to come up with innovations as transactions within the PNP could not be suspended even when the country is under a community quarantine.
“This will prevent the increase or volume of Covid-19 cases and also make transactions easier,” he said. (By Christopher Lloyd Caliwan)
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