Police to provide security for medical staff during Luzon quarantine

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine National Police chief Gen. Archie Gamboa has tasked police personnel to provide assistance and security to all medical staff and health workers following reports that some of them had been harassed outside the hospital amid fears over the new coronavirus disease.

“For the added peace of mind of our health workers, PNP personnel manning quarantine control stations are under instructions to assist them and escort them to their assigned hospitals,” Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, spokesperson for the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, said in a televised briefing.

To help front-line workers get to hospitals despite the suspension of mass transport under a Luzon lockdown, Nograles said the Department of Public Works and Highways had deployed 402 vehicles throughout the country to bring them to work.

—LEILA B. SALAVERRIA