Another PNP official dies of COVID-19 after jab

MANILA, Philippines — Another police official died of COVID-19 nearly a month after receiving his first dose of Sinovac jab, the Philippine National Police (PNP) reported yesterday.

PNP chief Gen. Debold Sinas said the 50-year-old police lieutenant with comorbidity died in a hospital in Batangas.

The patient, who was assigned with the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group field unit in Calabarzon, received his first dose of the vaccine on March 31. He started experiencing symptoms, such as headache, sore throat, cough and difficulty in breathing, on April 7.

Sinas said the police official was scheduled for a hemoperfusion on Wednesday, but no hospital in Calabarzon and Metro Manila would take him. The patient got on a waitlist, but died on Thursday.

Fifty-six PNP personnel have succumbed to COVID-19 since last year, 29 of them since January this year.

PNP deputy chief for administration Lt. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar said 147 more police personnel have contracted the virus, bringing the active cases to 1,722.

At least 111 of the new cases are from various regional offices, 26 of them from Metro Manila, and 36 from administrative and operational support units of the PNP.

A total of 20,150 PNP members have been infected since last year, 18,372 or 91.17 percent of whom have recovered.

The number of police personnel who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 reached 12,109.