MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine National Police has added more quarantine facilities and beds inside its national headquarters in Camp Crame for personnel infected with COVID-19, its national chief disclosed Wednesday.
"The PNP added 80 beds at Training Service facility while additional 100 beds were placed at the Badminton Court to fully accommodate PNP personnel who tested positive of the virus," Police Gen. Dionardo Carlos said in a statement.
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"We are adding more quarantine beds as a proactive measure just in case there will be more personnel who will need to undergo quarantine."
The Kiangan Emergency Treatment Facility remains the primary quarantine facility in Camp Crame for COVID-positive cases, the PNP chief added.
Carlos said that the asymptomatic personnel can go on home quarantine but will be required to submit their regular body conditions to the monitoring medical team.
This comes as the police organization wrestles to arrest a spike in coronavirus cases within its ranks.
"Many of the COVID cases among our police personnel developed mild symptoms which will only need home or facility isolation," Carlos said as he assured that the performance of duties will not be affected.
"We have our deployment strategy that in case a member of the police unit will be isolated, those who are not in contact with him/her will take over. Of course, swab testing is a regular thing for us," Carlos, who also tested positive for COVID-19, said.
As of the latest update from the PNP Health Service, the police organization has recorded 44,317 cases among its ranks, 2,843 of whom remain classified as active cases.
On January 11, a total 537 new cases were reported while additional 10 personnel have recovered bringing the total recoveries to 41,455 with 125 deaths.
"We continue to provide assistance to our policemen in the Quarantine Facilities and even to their dependents. We also do not stop giving booster shots to better fight the virus. With the rising number of positive cases in the police force, rest assured that our operational capabilities and performance will not be hampered," Carlos said.