BY ADRIAN P. NEMES III
The number of policemen and non-uniformed personnel of the Bacolod City Police who tested positive for Covid 19 now stands at 90, or about 11 percent of its total personnel, BCPO spokesperson, P/Lt. Liberty Indiape, said yesterday.
Indiape said that all of these cases are active, and only four policemen who were infected with the virus have, so far, recuperated since last month.
Records showed that Bacolod has 750 policemen and about 50 NUPs while more than 200 detached service policemen from the Police Regional Office 6 are augmenting them.
Indiape said the number of infected policemen and NUPs is high, and this is a challenge to the performance of their duties in maintaining the peace and order and ensuring the observance of health protocols by the public.
She added that all infected personnel are now being quarantined but she assured that their services will remain unhampered since the BCPO has augmentation from other police units.
With the increasing number of policemen and non-uniformed personnel infected with Covid-19, the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office continues the disinfection of the 10 police stations and the BCPO headquarters, as well as its patrol vehicles.
ALSO FRONTLINERS
Dr. Chris Sorongon, Emergency Operations Center deputy for data and medical analysis, said that it is not surprising that there was an increase in the number of BCPO policemen hit by Covid since they are also frontliners.
Sorongon said that most of these policemen frequent areas where people converge, although it is also not remote that they got the virus through household transmission. He said the surveillance testing played a vital part in identifying even those police personnel who are asymptomatic and that resulted in the strengthening of minimum health protocols.*
