PNP: 1.5 million quarantine violations recorded since August 2020
MANILA, Philippines — More than 1.5 million violations of COVID-19 health standards have been recorded since August 2020, with the non-wearing of face masks emerging as the most common infraction, the police said.
During a meeting of the government's pandemic task force on Wednesday, Police Gen. Debold Sinas reported that there were 1,503,273 violations of health protocols from Aug. 20, 2020 to March 23, 2021.
"As to the number of occurrences of 1.5 million recorded (violations) nationwide, NCR (National Capital Region) recorded the highest number of violators, which is 260,000 or 17.31%," the Philippine National Police chief said.
"On the recorded mandatory health protocol for the past eight months, the highest recorded violation is the non-wearing of face masks," he added.
Other common violations are not wearing face shields, holding mass gatherings, failure to observe physical distancing and non-reporting of notifiable disease.
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Sinas said the non-wearing of face mask is "consistently the number one violation committed by the public." The highest numbers of violators of the protocols on face masks and physical distancing were recorded last September, the police chief said.
With regard to the implementation of the 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew in Metro Manila, there were a total of 27,513 violators from March 15 to 23, most of them fined. A total 10,562 curfew violators were fined, 8,682 were warned, 1,098 were asked to render community service, and 13 were detained.
Most of the arrested individuals, 7,058 of them, have been released.
Sinas said the Manila Police District recorded the most number of apprehended violators despite the lowest number of deployed curfew implementers.
Southern Police District posted the second highest number of apprehensions followed by the Eastern Police District, and the Northern Police District. The Quezon City Police District registered the least number of apprehended violators. Manila recorded the highest number of curfew violations with 7,288, police data showed.
Sinas, nevertheless, said there has been an "observed downtrend" in the recorded violations in minimum health standards since September.
The police chief recommended the giving of continuous support to local governments and agencies in charge of socioeconomic activity while implementing curfew and health standards; sustaining the massive information drive on health standards, and the inclusion of deployed Joint Task Force COVID Shield personnel in the vaccine priorities list.
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