2 more PNP personnel die of virus

MANILA, Philippines — Two more Philippine National Police members have died of COVID-19, the PNP reported yesterday.

A total of 42 PNP personnel have succumbed to the virus since the COVID-19 pandemic started last year.

PNP deputy chief for administration Lt. Gen. Guilermo Eleazar said one of the fatalities is a 64-year-old non-uniformed personnel assigned at the Directorate for Intelligence who died from complications brought by the virus on April 9.

The other is a 48-year-old policeman from the Manila Police District’s traffic enforcement unit. He died on April 8.

The two are among the 215 more PNP members who contracted COVID-19 as of yesterday, bringing to 2,456 the number of active cases in the police force.

Seventy-one of the new patients are from Metro Manila, including four in Camp Crame, while 74 are assigned in various administrative and operational support units of the PNP.

Eleazar said 70 are assigned in different police regional offices across the country.

Since last year, at least 16,975 PNP personnel have been infected with COVID-19. Of the number, 14,447 or 85.28 percent of the patients have recovered from the virus.

One of the PNP’s isolation centers at Camp Crame, the Kiangan Billeting Center, is overwhelmed with patients.

Eleazar said the isolation center, catering to COVID-19 cases with mild to moderate symptoms, only have 55 beds but currently have 71 patients.

At the Crame tennis court, which was converted into a quarantine facility for asymptomatic patients, only 20 of the 105 beds are occupied while 31 of the 40 beds at  the taekwondo gym for low to high-risk patients are occupied.