PNP records 47th death from coronavirus
MANILA, Philippines — Total fatalities linked to the coronavirus among the Philippine National Police's ranks rose to 47 after another police officer died of the disease Wednesday morning.
In a statement sent to reporters, Police General Debold Sinas, PNP chief, said that the latest fatality is a 40-year old police non-commissioned officer assigned to the National Capital Region Police Office who tested positive for the pathogen on Tuesday, April 6.
According to the reports from PNP Health Service, on March 21 the officer, a staff sergeant, noted flu-like symptoms including fever and body aches "but did not report his condition to his unit and refused to go to a quarantine facility."
The day after, he developed shortness of breath, cough, colds, and diarrhea. He then scheduled an online consultation with a private physician and was advised to take antibiotic azithromycin for three days. "Instead of reporting to the quarantine facility he opted to buy his own oxygen for home use and continued self-medicating," the statement from the PNP reads.
On April 7, after receiving the result of his test, he chose to be brought to the hospital instead of the NCRPO Special Care Facility. It was only when he could not find a hospital that was not already at full capacity that he agreed to be quarantined at SCF 2.
His chest x-ray manifested bilateral pneumonia the day after, and on April 10, was transferred to a hospital in Marikina as his condition only grew more severe. He succumbed to the virus three days later.
"I am reminding again all our police personnel to be cautious of your health conditions and do not self-medicate as it may get worse," Sinas said in his statement.
Per the latest tally from the PNP Health Service, exactly 17,917 coronavirus infections have been recorded within the PNP, with 2,481 still classified as active cases.
This comes after the PNP-HS recorded 288 new cases of the virus on Tuesday.
More than 9,000 police personnel have been deployed to man the exactly 1,106 quarantine control points in Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal to implement health protocols.
Earlier Tuesday afternoon, the Department of Health logged 8,571 new coronavirus cases, bringing the national caseload to 884,783. Of which, 165,534 are active cases.
Exactly 392 days have passed since the first ECQ was hoisted, and the Philippines is still under the world's longest quarantine.
— Franco Luna
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