Police officer dies from COVID-19: PNP

April 3, 2020

A police officer died from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) Thursday night, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said Friday.

In a radio interview, PNP chief General Archie Francisco Gamboa confirmed the death but did not disclose any information about the officer.

“As a matter of fact, last night we lost one. One positive died as he was not able to survive (the virus),” Gamboa said.

Thirteen police personnel are positive for the COVID-19, PNP data showed. It added that 182 were persons under investigation (PUI) and while 1,545 were persons under monitoring ( PUM)

Gamboa said most persons who are PUIs andPUMs were asymptomatic.

Gamboa added that a police colonel was brought to a hospital Thursday night after having difficulty in breating.

Aside from personal protective equipment (PPEs), Gamboa said to protect PNP personnel from the virus, cops aged 46 and up are not being deployed.

“We discouraged deployment of personnel who are at least 46 (or) 47 years old and up… We are not deploying them… we encourage 45 below,” he said.

“These are sad stories on the part of PNP but nevertheless we have to do our duty on running the risk of being infected,” Gamboa said.

Gamboa assured that police personnel, especially those manning at checkpoints were provided with vitamins and PPEs.

“We give our policemen our personal protective equipment and to further protect them, we gave them vitamins and fixing their shifting so they will still have time to rest,” Gamboa said. Ella Dionisio/DMS