COVID-19 cases in police force now at 1,564

MANILA, Philippines — There are now 1,564 commission and non-commissioned officers in the Philippine National Police (PNP) who have contracted the latest coronavirus strain, according to an update on Monday night.

PNP said in its official Facebook page that the number of positive patients increased by 72, while more PNP personnel recovered from the disease, from 586 on Sunday to 608 on Monday.

The death toll still stands at nine.

Of the new cases reported, 20 are from the National Capital Region Police Office, of which two are police commissioned officers (PCOs) and 18 are police non-commissioned officers (PNCOs).

Police Regional Office – 7 (PRO-7) had two PNCOs with COVID-19, while PRO-4A, PRO-Cordillera, the Special Action Force, and the Maritime Group each had one more infected PNCO.

There are also 1,604 other police officers who are suspected of having the disease while 723 are considered probable.

The continuous increase in the number of infected PNP personnel came after the Department of Health announced on Monday that the country now has 69,898 with still over 11 days to go before July ends.

Of this number, 1,835 patients have died while 23,072 have recovered.

Latest predictions from the University of the Philippines’ COVID-19 response team showed that the country may have 85,000 cases with 2,000 deaths by the end of July, based on the current R-naught or reproductive number of the country. [ac]