By Bea Bernardo
The Philippine National Police (PNP) wants members of the Joint Task Force COVID Shield to be placed in a higher priority for the country’s COVID-19 vaccination.
PNP Chief PGen. Debold Sinas personally requested this during the televised Talk to the Nation of President Rodrigo Duterte.
“We are recommending the inclusion of the deployed JTF COVID Shield personnel in the priority of the vaccination program if possible,” PGen. Sinas endorsed.
Under the current priority schedule for the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, uniformed personnel, which includes police officers, are listed under the A4 category, next to persons with comorbidities.
According to JTF COVID Shield Command PLtGen. Cesar Binag, a total of 63,822 policemen have been deployed nationwide under the said task force.
The JTF COVID Shield is PNP’s lead Coronavirus task force which aims to enforce health protocol to the public. As of March 24, a total of 2,677 police health frontliners have received the COVID-19 vaccine.
“Despite some challenges and limitations, the PNP is very proud to say that we have done our best and accomplished a lot of breakthroughs and milestones,” PGen. Sinas lauded.
Meanwhile, ASCOFT Command PLtGen. Guillermo Eleazar directed all commanders and chiefs of police units to conduct surprise inspections in their respective offices to ensure the adherence to health protocols. The purpose of this order is to ensure that all police personnel are complying with the memorandum to wear face mask and face shield inside police camps, police stations and even inside offices.
“The upsurge in COVID-19 cases in the PNP is consistent with both our analysis and that of health experts. As part of the general population, the PNP is also experiencing upsurge of cases especially that we are frontliners,” PLtGen. Eleazar pointed out.
Currently, the PNP has 13,666 COVID-19 cases, 1,649 were active cases.
