A Philippine National Police (PNP) officer assigned in Ilocos Region is their 100th fatality from the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
Citing reports from the PNP Health Service, PNP chief, Gen. Guillermo Eleazar on Monday said the latest fatality is a 44-year-old police Staff Sergeant assigned in Police Regional Office 1 who passed away Sunday morning.
Although fully vaccinated with the Covid-19 vaccine, the patient was immuno-compromised with high comorbidity. According to his relative, the police officer is undergoing dialysis due to chronic kidney disease (CKD).
“He was also on work-from-home status since the start of the pandemic. However, on August 19, he was rushed to a hospital due to difficulty of breathing and was tested positive of the said virus, and on August 22 he succumbed,” Eleazar said in a statement.
Lt. Gen. Joselito Vera Cruz, PNP deputy chief for administration and Administrative Support For Covid-19 Task Force (ASCOTF) commander, said a total of 16 cops have already died this August.
“Based on our records, close to 90 percent ng Covid casualties are unvaccinated (that’s why) we are encouraging those with vaccine hesitancy to take the jab available regardless of the brand,” Vera Cruz told the Philippine News Agency.
He also encouraged the PNP personnel to have themselves vaccinated against pneumonia “since more than 60 percent of our covid casualties succumbed to community acquired pneumonia while about 70 percent of our Covid deaths are with existing comorbidities.”
Vera Cruz attributed the increase in PNP Covid-19 deaths to emerging variants including Delta that is 60 percent highly transmissible.
“As much as possible our treatment facilities deal only on mild cases and we opt to transfer moderate to severe cases to tertiary hospitals so we are in close coordination with One Command Hospital of the DOH to ensure timely evacuation,” Vera Cruz said.
He also reminded the PNP personnel to strictly observe minimum public health standards (MPHS) to prevent Covid-19 infections.
“Hindi nawawala yung ating constant reminders sa ating hanay (We constantly remind them) to strictly observe the MPHS which is the only foolproof measure to break the virus transmission regardless of the variant. We are doing this through our regular police info and continuing education maximizing the use of available avenues/resources to send the message that the Covid19 threat is real,” he said.
As of Monday, the PNP Health Service also logged 116 recoveries, bringing the total number of recoveries to 31,492.
Another 150 new cases increased the active case tally to 1,846.
The PNP has so far fully vaccinated 88,940 or 40.03 percent of its personnel 940 while 103,623 or 46.64 percent are just awaiting the second dose. Only 29,606 or 13.33 percent of police personnel have not been vaccinated.
Source: Philippines News Agency
