Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Police Gen. Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar ordered police commanders nationwide to conduct assessments of the existing quarantine protocols and come up with necessary adjustments to help contain the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) amid warnings of health experts that infection cases are expected to continue to rise next week.
Eleazar said that understanding the local factors that affect the transmission of the coronavirus is one of the factors that should be looked into by local commanders in coming up with necessary adjustments in the implementation of the quarantine rules.
“Sa gitna ng babala ng mga eksperto na lalo pang tataas ang mga kaso ng COVID-19, inatasan ko na ang ating Joint Task Force COVID Shield at ang aming mga police commanders to coordinate with the LGUs in order to conduct assessments of existing protocols and draw up security adjustments in the interest of public health and safety,” the PNP Chief said.
“I also instructed the Joint Task Force COVID Shield to identify the best practices in some Local Government Units (LGUs) that could be replicated in areas with high COVID cases,” Eleazar added.
The PNP Chief, however, noted the high number of violators being accosted for minimum public health standards and quarantine rules in the past days amid the continuous rise of COVID-19 cases.
“Sa gitna ng patuloy na pagtaas ng mga kaso ng COVID ay patuloy din ang pagdami ng mga lumalabag sa mga alituntuning pagkaligtasan na inilatag ng ating pamahalaan,” Eleazar said.
“Naniniwala ang inyong PNP na ang first line of defense sa COVID-19 ay ang pagsasa-isip at pagsasa-puso ng determinasyon ng bawat isa sa atin na hindi tayo mahawa at ang ating mga pamilya sa nakamamatay na virus na ito. The enforcement part involving the PNP is an added layer of defense against those who continue to defy the quarantine rules,” he stressed.
Eleazar also encouraged the public to get vaccinated against the deadly disease as more supplies of COVID-19 vaccines continue to arrive in the country.
The OCTA Research Group, an independent organization of experts that give projections about the COVID-19 situation in the country, warned that cases could even spike up to 20,000 per day.
So far, the Philippines has a total of 1,869,691 cases wherein 127,703 are active.### (PNP-PIO) -bny
