BY ADRIAN P. NEMES III
More than 50 Persons Deprived of Liberty (PDLs) and 47 policemen of Bacolod City have tested positive for the coronavirus disease 2019, as of yesterday.
Executive director Em Ang of the City Emergency Operations Center said that, as of 12 noon yesterday, new index cases of Covid-19 in Bacolod totaled 101 and most of these were local transmissions.
Ang said the PDLs were swabbed as part of the requirement before they are remitted to the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology.
She said the PDLs who have contracted the disease were already isolated, and that, aside from the regular 14-day quarantine, the BJMP requires them to undergo isolation for seven more days before they will be accepted to the facility.
Ang said that, so far, based on EOC records, no members of the BJMP or inmates have tested positive for Covid.
COPS COVID POSITIVE
P/Lt. Liberty Indiape, spokesperson of the Bacolod Police, said yesterday that of the 47 policemen infected with Covid, 15 are from Police Station 4, 13 from PS 1, five from PS 5, and seven each from police stations 3 and 6.
Most of the policemen who tested positive were those assigned to field work, which means, Ang said, that it could not be considered as an outbreak, or a workplace transmission.
To hasten the surveillance testing of the 761 policemen of Bacolod, the city government tapped the help of the local chapter of the Philippine Red Cross.
STOP GATHERINGS
The EOC is appealing to the public to do away with social gatherings, as many of the new Covid-infected patients had histories of attending weddings, birthday celebrations, or other events where crowds gathered.
Ang said that weddings or baptismal rites may be held with close family members and few invited guests, but serving of food should be avoided because that is the time when people remove their face masks and face shields. She said the Covid situation in Bacolod is alarming since many hospitals and isolation facilities are already almost full with the new infected patients.*
