COTABATO CITY—The police training facility of Maguindanao province has been put on lockdown after 34 trainees tested positive for SARS Cov2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
The trainees were from the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
The high number of infections in just one area in Maguindanao prompted the province’s Inter Agency Task Force (IATF) to shut the training center down to prevent the spread of the virus to more policemen, civilian employees or trainees.
The police training center sits inside the police regional office in Camp SK Pendatun , Parang town, Maguindanao.
Dr. Elizabeth Samama, Maguindanao provincial health officer and chief of the Integrated Provincial Health Office (IPHO), said the new 34 cases has brought to 94 the total number of COVID-19 cases in the region.
Samama led the health team who conducted tests on the trainees and officers in the training center who have been found positive for the virus. They are in stable condition so far.
Samama, in a phone interview, said many of those infected are not showing symptoms. She said health care workers are caring for the COVID-19 patients.
“They are very cooperative,” she said. The training facility, she added, was shuttered in the meantime to keep everyone inside from leaving the place.
The lockdown will end on Sept. 4.
A doctor stationed outside the camp and several health care workers would monitor the condition of the infected trainees and officers regularly.
The officers and trainees had been exposed to a tailor from Iligan City who had gone to the training camp last July 31 to get sizes for uniforms he was contracted to manufacture. It was learned that the tailor had already shown symptoms of COVID-19 while he was in the camp.
Upon his return to Iligan, the tailor, his wife, children and workers at his tailoring shop were already infected with coronavirus.
Samama said 633 individuals, who have had close contact with the tailor, had been traced and tagged as first, second or third degree contacts of the tailor.
Two police officers, a police colonel and a police sergeant were among the first to be infected inside the police camp two days after the tailor left.
After a series of tests, 34 police trainees were found with coronavirus, according to Samama.
Aside from the police officers inside the training center, a 37-year-old police officer has also been isolated after he tested positive for the virus. He came from Parang, Maguindanao.
Samama said contacts of the 37-year-old officer are being traced. Health workers are investigating where he could have contracted the virus.
Samama said there’s been no casualty from COVID-19 yet in Maguindanao.
As of Aug. 23, six patients have been added to the list of COVID-19 cases in the Bangsamoro region. Three of the new cases were from Basilan while the other three came from Lanao del Sur.
Of the 593 total number of infections monitored in BARMM, 449 have recovered and 14 died.
At least 42 percent, or 250, cases came from the Marawi City and Lanao del Sur. Basilan and Lamitan City accounted for 1089 cases.
Maguindanao has 94; Sulu, 17 and Tawi-Tawi, 4. A total of 120 of those infected were individuals who had been stranded in virus epicenter Metro Manila who were returning to the BARMM provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.
Of 14 deaths in the region, nine came from Lanao Sur and Marawi City, three in Sulu and one each from Basilan and Tawi-Tawi.