Entire Tuguegarao police force infected

TUGUEGARAO CITY, Cagayan, Philippines — The police chief and the entire police force in this city have been infected with the coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19.

City police chief Col. Jonalyn Tecbobolan and 13 other police officers tested positive for the virus, results released yesterday showed.

The city police office was locked down on Aug. 17 after the swab tests of a non-uniformed personnel and 10 other police officers yielded positive results.

Mayor Jefferson Soriano said Tecbobolan, who is asymptomatic, and her men who are on self-quarantine at the police station since Aug. 17, would continue to discharge their duties.

Four of the infected police officers are confined at the Cagayan Valley Medical Center.

Tecbobolan expressed concern that the 31 inmates in their custodial center were also infected. The results of their swab tests are expected to be released within this week.

This city reverted to modified enhanced community quarantine for 10 days starting on Wednesday due to an ”alarming increase” in confirmed cases.

In Quezon, the obstetrician-gynecology (OB-GYN) ward of the Quezon Medical Center will be closed from Aug. 31 to Sept. 14 for disinfection as well as testing and quarantine of their staff.

”No patient will be admitted due to rising number of pregnant women with COVID-19,” a memorandum issued by OB-GYN department head Belen Garana read.

Community transmission

Meanwhile, the Nueva Vizcaya provincial health office said a livestock inspector infected nine persons in seven barangays in Solano town.

The oldest patient is a 73-year-old man and the youngest a four-year-old boy.

Health authorities have yet to determine how the government employee, who tested positive for the virus on Aug. 20, contracted the disease.

In Ilocos Norte, three sitios in Barangay San Lorenzo in Sarrat town were placed on lockdown after a 62-year-old woman infected seven members of her family. Six of those who tested positive for the virus are asymptomatic. – Michelle Zoleta