THE number of policemen infected with Sars-CoV-2 has increased to 942 as of Tuesday, July 7, 2020.
The PNP Health Service reported Tuesday an additional 37 cases, including 19 from Police Regional Office (PRO) Central Visayas, 12 from National Capital Region Police Office, two from PRO Calabarzon and one each from PRO Central Luzon, PRO Western Visayas, National Headquarters and the PNP Finance Service.
Of the total, 419 have already recovered from the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) while nine had died.
The PNP Health Service is also monitoring 657 probable cases and 1,258 suspect cases.
PNP Chief Archie Gamboa earlier said most of the policemen who contracted the virus were in the front lines of the government’s battle against the disease.
Gamboa said they have put in place strict safety measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19 among their ranks.
“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.
The police is primarily tasked to enforce quarantine protocols. Even with the easing of restrictions in some areas, policemen continue to enforce physical distancing and minimum health standards.
Meanwhile, Lieutenant General 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 by going digital.
He said copies of application forms for various transactions at 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 said.
He said they will inform applicants of their schedule of personal appearance to limit the number of people coming in and out of their camps.
They will also implement a drive-through 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 such innovations as transactions within the PNP could not be suspended even when the country is under a community quarantine.
“This will prevent the increase (in) volume of Covid-19 cases and also make transactions easier,” he said. (SunStar Philippines)