Maguindanao health authorities lift lockdown on police training camp as cops beat COVID-19

COTABATO CITY——-Health authorities in Maguindanao province lifted the lockdown on the regional police training camp after 34 officers and trainees completed a four-week quarantine and defeated the virus.

According to Dr. Elizabeth Samama, Maguindanao health chief, all the occupants of the police training center for the Bangsamoro region in Parang town have just completed their isolation.

“They are now reintegrated into the community,” Samama said.

The camp was closed to contain the spread of the coronavirus after the 34 police officers and police trainees contracted the virus. They were prevented from leaving the training center and ordered to complete their quarantine inside the facility.

Samama said individual assessment of the 34 COVID-19 patients was done on Friday by health workers from the Maguindanao provincial health office and the Bangsamoro health ministry.

“Each was given a clean bill of health,” Samama said.

The virus spread inside the camp after an Iligan City-based tailor went there to take the personnel’s individual measurements for their uniforms.

It was only upon the tailor’s return to Iligan City that he was tested and found positive for SARS CoV2, the virus that causes COVID-19, further infecting his workers and members of his family.

Of the more than 90 police officials and trainees in the camp, 34 tested positive for the virus.

A 54-year old laundrywoman serving the police training center died of COVID-19. She was last seen inside the center before it was locked down.

CFC