PNP death toll from COVID-19 rises to 42

The Philippine National Police reported on Saturday two new deaths due to COVID-19 among its personnel, bringing the total death count to 42. Police Lt. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, commander of the administrative support for COVID-19 task force, said the latest deaths were that of a 48-year-old male staff sergeant assigned at Manila Police District who died on April 8 and a 64-year-old male nonuniformed personnel assigned at Directorate for Intelligence who died on April 9. As of Friday, a total of 16,975 police officers have contracted the new coronavirus, or 7.7 percent of the entire police force. Of the total, 21 percent were assigned at PNP headquarters in Camp Crame, Quezon City. —Dexter Cabalza