FILE PHOTO The Philippine National Police Headquarters in Camp Crame, Quezon City. Niño Jesus Orbeta/Philippine Daily Inquirer
MANILA, Philippines — Active COVID-19 infections within the Philippine National Police (PNP) jumped to 164 on Tuesday, after its Health Service reported 107 new cases.
The huge rise in active infections within the police force occurred from just 14 last December 28, or in just a week’s time.
In the data drop from last December 28, only four new COVID-19 cases were reported; prior to that, there were several days when the PNP did not record any new infection.
On Monday, January 3, the PNP Health Service only added eight new cases to the active case tally.
With the sharp increase in infections, the total confirmed cases within the PNP is now at 42,370, of which 42,081 have already recovered. No new deaths were reported, leaving the death toll still at 125.
Metro Manila is currently under Alert Level 3 until January 15, due to the sharp uptick in COVID-19 cases after the holiday season. As of Monday, the country’s active COVID-19 infections continued to increase, now at 24,992 after the Department of Health (DOH) reported 4,084 new infections.
The increase came after a relatively low number of daily cases before the holidays — ranging from 300 to 500 with the active case count down to below 10,000.
However, after the holidays, more people were confirmed infected, with some experts believing that it may have been caused by the COVID-19 Omicron variant, which is believed to be more infectious than the Delta variant.
The Delta variant was responsible for the surge in the Philippines last August to September 2021.
Last Saturday, January 1, DOH said that there is a high possibility of local transmissions of the Omicron variant, although the department maintained that the country is now more ready to face the Omicron variant after gaining experience from previous surges.