29 Soccsksargen cops considered COVID-19 PUI, PUMs
Local News • 17:30 PM Fri Apr 3, 2020
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By:
Richelyn Gubalani/PNA
Lt. Col. Lino Capellan, spokesperson of the Police Regional Office 12. (File photo courtesy of PRO-12)
GENERAL SANTOS CITY -- At least 29 police personnel in Region 12 (Soccsksargen) are currently on quarantine after being categorized as patients under investigation (PUI) and persons under monitoring (PUM) for the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
Lt. Col. Lino Capellan, the spokesperson of Police Regional Office (PRO) 12, said Thursday a police officer has been classified as a PUI after manifesting symptoms of Covid-19 following a recent trip to Metro Manila.
Capellan said the other 28, some of whom had also traveled to areas with confirmed cases of the disease for training and other transactions, have been listed as PUMs.
“The lone PUI has only shown mild (symptoms) and (has been) observing strict isolation while under home quarantine,” he said in an interview.
Capellan said the 28 PUMs are also under the mandatory 14-day home quarantine and none of them has so far manifested any sign and symptom of Covid-19.
The affected police personnel are assigned to the city and provincial police offices, national support units, and PRO-12 headquarters.
In the past two weeks, Capellan said 14 PUMs have completed the observation protocol and considered cleared.
He said they have been regularly monitoring the status of the nearly 200 police personnel currently deployed to the region’s border checkpoints as they are considered highly vulnerable to Covid-19 exposure.
Capellan said Regional Health Service 12, as directed by PRO-12 chief Brig. Gen. Alfred Corpus, has been providing guidance to the concerned personnel regarding safety measures and related protocols.
“They were provided with initial personal protective equipment and we have been augmenting them with improvised gears,” he said.
Since the Soccsksargen-wide general community quarantine took effect on March 23, Capellan said a total of 4,484 vehicles and 5,922 persons from other areas had been denied entry at the border checkpoints.
Local police units have apprehended and penalized some 1,106 curfew violators while 75 were arrested and charged for offenses related to the conduct of the heightened quarantine measures.
He said 56 of the cases were for violation of Article 151 of the Revised Penal Code or resistance and disobedience to a person in authority, 12 for violation of Article 148 or direct assault, and seven for “non-cooperation of persons who have been identified as having the notifiable disease” under Republic Act 11332 or the Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act. (PNA)