INQUIRER.net STOCK IMAGE
MANILA, Philippines — A police officer from Pasay City has contracted the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), bringing the total count of COVID-19 cases in the Philippine National Police (PNP) to three.
PNP spokesman Brig. Gen. Bernard Banac said the police officer is a 35-year-old male whose results were released by the Research Institute of Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Muntinlupa City on Saturday.
Also, Banac said a police officer who is considered as a person under monitoring (PUM) died this morning. The Philippine health department said PUMs are those who traveled from countries with local transmission of COVID-19 but are asymptomatic.
“The PNP, meanwhile, confirmed the death this morning of a PNP member earlier listed as Person Under Monitoring,” he said in a statement.
The fatality succumbed to cardiac arrest and was exposed to a COVID-19 positive patient and has undergone self-isolation for seven days.
Banac also disclosed that the police force now has 97 persons under investigation for the disease and while 1,228 police personnel are considered as PUMs.
The PNP Health Service has ordered the PUMs and PUIs in the nation’s police force to undergo self-quarantine, Banac said. The police personnel will possibly get tested for the coronavirus disease, he added.
As of Thursday, two police officers in the PNP tested positive for the coronavirus disease, which was caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Corona Virus-2 (SARS-COV-2).