March 29, 2024

City Mayor Benjamin Magalong reported last week Police Director General Guillermo Eleazar has agreed to temporarily close a police training center in Baguio to control the continued surge of Covid-19 cases among the trainees.
Magalong said Eleazar has already ordered the suspension of all face-to-face training of policemen at the Cordillera Administrative Region Training Center (Cartc) at Teachers’ Camp.
The City Health Services Office has alerted Magalong that 26 more police trainees have contracted the virus from June 28 to July 11, thus the need to discontinue their activities.
Earlier, the CHSO-City Epidemiology Surveillance Unit (CESU) reported it has recorded 104 Covid cases among trainees at the Cartc.
Around 197 regular officers from various regions were undergoing leadership training at the center when CHSO recorded a surge in cases among the police trainees.
Magalong ordered the lockdown of the entire training facility third week of June to control the movement of people. He also ordered testing, contact tracing, isolation, and quarantine measures to control the further spread of the virus.
Magalong said there is a need to emphasize adherence to health protocols among the trainees.
“It appears that our trainees are not compliant with the minimum public health standards,” Magalong said.
Last year, around 200 police recruits who were undergoing Field Training Program at the Baguio City Police Office also contracted the virus.
Contact tracing done by the city government found out that the crowded billeting of the trainees, as well as the laxity of the trainees upon their arrival at the billeting area, contributed to the spread of the virus among the recruits.
This prompted the issuance of new policies on billeting and compliance to rules as a deterrent to the spread of the virus. – PNA