BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Benjamin Magalong on Monday said the Philippine National Police (PNP) has agreed to temporarily put on hold training at the police regional training school here to control the continued spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) among policemen.

Magalong said PNP chief Gen. Guillermo Eleazar has agreed to the city’s position to temporarily hold all face-to-face training of policemen at the Cordillera Administrative Region Training Center (CARTC) in Teachers Camp.

The mayor said the city detected new Covid-19 positive patients among the trainees thus the need to discontinue said activities.

The City Epidemiology Surveillance Unit (CESU) found that 26 more trainees turned Covid-19 positive from June 28 to July 11.

Last month, 104 cases were recorded at the CARTC who were among the 197 regular officers from various regions that were undergoing leadership training at the center.

As such, Magalong ordered the lockdown of the entire training facility sometime the third week of June to be able to control the movement of people and imposed the conduct of testing, contact tracing, isolation, and quarantine measures to control the further spread of the virus.

Magalong said there is a need to emphasize adherence to health protocols among the trainees as a constant reminder.

“It appears that our trainees are not compliant with the minimum public health standards,” he said.

In 2020, around 200 police recruit out of the over 500 who were undergoing Field Training Program (FTP) at the Baguio City Police Office were also found positive of the virus.

Contact tracing done by the city government found that the crowded billeting of the trainees, as well as the laxity of the trainees upon their arrival at the billeting, contributed to the spread of the virus among the recruits.

This prompted the issuance of new policies on billeting and compliance to rules as a deterrent to the spread of the virus. (PNA)