Over 50 San Nicolas police isolated after 2 PDLs tested positive for COVID-19

Police Brigadier General Albert Ignatius Ferro

CEBU CITY, Philippines – Around 50 San Nicolas police will no longer be allowed to go home or do field works starting today, May 6, 2020, while they remain under observation for the coronavirus disease 2019.

Police Brigadier General Albert Ferro, director of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7), gave the orders for their isolation after the Cebu City Health Department (CHD) confirmed that two Persons Deprived of Liberty (PDLs) who were earlier detained at their police station’s detention facility tested positive for the infection.

“We are making the protocol or isolating the police station six from their fieldwork karon.  Ailay ipa swab namo para kung naay na takdan sa among kauban sa station six we could isolate them and help them recover,” Ferro said during his web conference with the Cebu media this morning.

(We are implementing the isolation protocols or we are preventing policemen assigned at police station six from doing field works.  We will have them undergo swab testing to determine who among them has the infection and so that they could immediately be isolated for their recovery.)

Ferro said that while San Nicolas police remain in isolation, policemen coming from the Mobile Patrol Group of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) and other police units under PRO-7 will respond to calls for emergencies on their behalf.

Suspicions on their possible infection started Tuesday night, May 5, after the CHD released the swab test results of two drug suspects who were detained at their detention facility.

The suspects, who are residents of Barangays Sawang Calero and Sambag I, were arrested in a buy bust operation in Barangay Suba on April 12.

Ferro said that the two were made to undergo swab testing on April 30 as a preparation for their transfer to the city jail and in compliance with Mayor Edgardo Labella’s Executive Order No. 71 that require all PDLs to submit themselves to mandatory swab testing before admission or release from the Cebu City Jail.

Test results confirming that the two PDLs were positive for COVID-19 were made available Tuesday night, May 5.  The two were transferred to the city jail this morning, May 6, and were placed in an isolation center together with other PDLS who tested positive for the infection.

Meanwhile, one of the 40 policemen who were deployed to secure Sitio Zapatera in Barangay Luz tested positive for COVID-19.

Ferro said that contact tracing is now ongoing to determine who else from among the personal of the Regional Mobile Force Battalion has the infection.

“Katong naay na positive diha nga patrolman, we found out that they were members of the security forces that are billeted at the Mabolo Public School,  So, what we did is to let them undergo  RT-PCR swab so that we will be able to determine wether they are affected,” he said.

(The patrolman who tested positive for COVID-19 was among the security forces billeted at the Mabolo Public School, So, we had all of them undergo RT-PCR swab to determine who else were infected.)

Fortunately, the other policemen were negative of the virus, he added. / dcb