MAP OF SAMBOAN | Wikicommons File
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Thirteen policemen and 14 detainees of the Samboan Police Station have tested positive for COVID-19 and they have already been extracted, isolated and monitored.
Police Colonel Engelbert Soriano, Cebu Police Provincial Office (CPPO) director, confirmed this in a phone interview today, July 24.
Soriano also said that eight policemen from the 2nd Provincial Mobile Force Company had already been deployed to the Samboan Police Station to help augment 18 policemen left to man the police station and to continue to deliver basic services.
He said that of the 13 infected policemen, one was hospitalized but he had already been discharged yesterday, July 23.
Soriano also said that the 14 detainees at the police station had already been isolated and secured by policemen.
He also explained the process for these infected detainees.
The detainees will be isolated for two weeks before they will be swabbed again and if they get a negative swab result, then they will be allowed to join other detainees at the the police station’s detention cell.
He also assured that there would be no lockdown in the police station since eight PMFC policemen had augmented the 18 healthy policemen in the station.
He said that they only knew about these positive cases among the Samboan Police Station policemen after they underwent testing when one of them was a close contact with someone infected with the virus from outside the police station a week ago.
“A week ago nagkaroon ng testing kasi yung isang police na close contact ng isang nagpositive outside. It turned out positive din yung isa kaya nag testng sa close contacts nya sa buong station. Fortunately wala namang critical most of them are asymptomatic,” Soriano said.
(A week ago, we tested the policemen after one of them was a close contact of someone, who turned out to be positive of the virus. The test results showed he was positive too so those who was in close contact with the policemen were tested. Fortunately, there were no critical cases and most of them are asymptomatic)
Soriano also assured that the infected policemen and detainees or persons deprived of liberty would be assisted and cared for.
He also reiterated that the Samboan Police Station would continue to deliver basic services since there were still 30 healthy policemen manning it.
He said this was also necessary because Samboan had been placed a under a lockdown and police monitoring would be crucial for this.
He was referring to Samboan Mayor Emerito Calderon Jr. issuing Executive Order No. 25 on Thursday, July 22, placing Barangays Suba, Poblacion, Bonbon, Tangbo, Dalahikan, Colase, and Bato in ‘lockdown’ due to rising COVID-19 cases there.
The lockdown started yesterday, July 23, and will take effect until midnight of July 28 or unless a longer period is required.
Samboan is a fifth-class municipality located approximately 146 kilometers southwest of Cebu City.
Based on the COVID-19 tracker of the Department of Health in Central Visayas, as of July 23, Samboan town has recorded 189 cases with 59 of this number being active cases.
For Cebu Province, the DOH-7 COVID-19 tracker showed that Cebu Province has recorded 255 new cases as of July 23.
These cases bring the total number of COVID-19 cases in the province to 1608.
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