PNP chaplain tests positive for Covid-19

PNP General Hospital spokesperson, Maj. Duds Santos said the patient is confined and recovering at the St. Luke’s Medical Center Global City in Taguig. (File Photo: Philippine National Police/Facebook)

MANILA – A Philippine National Police (PNP) chaplain has been tested positive for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), an official said on Wednesday.

PNP General Hospital spokesperson, Maj. Duds Santos said the patient is confined and recovering at the St. Luke’s Medical Center Global City in Taguig.

“Nakalabas na siya sa ICU (nung Tuesday) [He was already released from the ICU on Tuesday],” he said in a media statement.

Santos added that the patient has no travel history but had contact with two foreigners from Europe three weeks ago.

Meanwhile, eight other personnel of the PNP Chaplain Service who had contact with the patient were considered persons under monitoring (PUMs) and were subject to quarantine from March 8 to 22.

All of them were asymptomatic and were declared cleared of Covid-19.

PNP chief, Gen. Archie Gamboa said a total of 45 police personnel were listed as Persons Under Investigation (PUI) while 615 others were considered PUMs for Covid-19.

Gamboa said the PNP Health Service is keeping a close watch on these personnel in accordance with the protocols of the Department of Health (DOH) in handling PUIs and PUMs.

He said the PNP is taking more stringent actions to prevent the spread of the virus among their ranks, especially those assigned to man the checkpoints as part of the enhanced community quarantine.

He said there is always a possibility that police officers will contract the virus while performing their functions.

He said upon the recommendation of the PNP Health Service, a PNP-wide Biosafety Plan is now being observed in Camp Crame and all PNP camps, including possible setting-up of decontamination procedure for personnel returning to stations from field duty.

“We are instituting strict measures to prevent its spread among our back end and front line personnel, such as provision of minimum Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for all frontline personnel; continuous contact tracing and self-quarantine; stringent social distancing including maximum use of teleconferencing of key leaders,” Gamboa said in a media statement.