PNP chief Gen. Guillermo Eleazar gets vaccinated with the first dose of China’s Sinovac BioNTech (Photo from Philippine National Police-PIO)
MANILA, Philippines — At least half of the police officers assigned in Metro Manila, including those stationed in the national headquarters at Camp Crame, are already fully vaccinated against COVID-19 according to Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Guillermo Eleazar.
At the Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum on Wednesday, Eleazar said 50.3 percent of the PNP personnel in Metro Manila are now fully immunized against the disease, while 44.2 percent have received their first dose of the vaccine.
The PNP chief says this means 94.5 percent of police officers in Metro Manila have received some protection against COVID-19.
“Now for the Metro Manila which is ito talaga ang laging focus natin, 50.3 percent of our personnel have been fully vaccinated, ito’y naka-assign po dito, kasama po kami doon, kasi nasa NCR din kami even though we are not part of NCRPO (National Capital Region Police Office) pero nasa Camp Crame kami,” Eleazar said.
“44.2 percent naman have one vaccine na, one dose, so 94.5 (percent) of us here in Metro Manila ay at least meron nang isang vaccine,” he added.
The PNP is targeting to vaccinate most of its personnel, especially since almost all police officers are willing to get inoculated.
“We are targeting 100 percent po ito at the end of — pati na rin po ‘yong ibang outside of Metro Manila — ay kayanin namin,” Eleazar noted.
“I just checked with our online survey, and nakita ko na as of the moment, 98.35 percent of our personnel are willing to be vaccinated. And well of course, 81.3 (percent) nakita naman natin, 81.3 (percent) ay na-vaccinate na,” he added.
On Monday, the PNP announced that at least 35 percent or 79,082 of the 220,000 police officers nationwide have been fully-vaccinated against COVID-19.
Aside from this, 41.89 percent or 92,914 are just waiting for their second dose to complete their immunization, leaving only 22.45 percent of the entire police force not vaccinated against COVID-19.
However, cases of infections in the national police force continue. On Monday, 106 more COVID-19 infections were recorded in the PNP, bringing the active case count to 1,970.
The country is banking on COVID-19 vaccinations to usher in herd immunity, to ensure that the economy would be revived before the year ends. Vaccination is also hailed as the step against the looming threats from COVID-19 variants, which forced the national government to put parts of the country on another enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) status.
As of Tuesday’s numbers, the country has 105,787 active COVID-19 infections after the Department of Health recorded 10,035 new infections recorded.
READ: DOH reports 10,035 new COVID-19 cases