Activities, trainings, and events at the Philippine Public Safety College (PPSC) at the Cordillera Administrative Region Training Center at Teachers’ Camp, Baguio City have been ordered suspended and the facility was placed on lockdown last week after almost half of the police personnel of the training personnel tested positive for the Covid-19.
Mayor Benjamin Magalong reported 98 of 197 police personnel at the training center tested positive for Covid-19 after the center management subjected its personnel to RT-PCR test.
Most of those who got infected are regular police personnel undergoing leadership courses. The source of the cases is still under investigation.
As part of the procedure, all specimens were sent to the Philippine Genome Center to determine whether these are of the common Covid-19 strain or among the variants of concern, including the Delta variant.
The mayor said city is working with PPSC OIC, Lt/Col. Miguel Guzman, and PNP Training Center Head, M/Gen. Alex Sintin, to make sure guidelines set forth by the local government are fully complied with.
Magalong said they noted lapses in following the minimum health protocols within the training center, which may have caused the case clustering – it has poor ventilation and physical distancing was not strictly observed.
A surge in cases was also recorded within a business process outsourcing facility at Camp John Hay.
As of June 25 monitoring, the city has a total of 13,786 cases, 596 of which are active.
Based on records, most clustering of cases in the city occurred within the police force followed by healthcare frontliners, BPOs, banking institutions, and groceries.
The mayor said the recent spike in cases presents a problem and warned more surges may be expected in the following weeks, but the city is taking all the necessary steps to isolate the recent cases and monitor and quarantine their close contacts to stop further transmission.
The city’s management committee, also this week, crafted a plan to counter the more contagious Delta variant, including measures to manage the situation in the event it enters the city. – Hanna C. Lacsamana
