Carlos pushes for COVID jabs for all PNP members
PHILIPPINE National Police chief General Dionardo B. Carlos yesterday said he is pushing for the vaccination of all members of the 222,000-strong police force to give them and their families adequate protection from the deadly COVID-19 virus.
“The PNP through our ASCOTF wishes that all our personnel avail of the COVID-19 vaccines and we are doing our best to convince our PNP personnel to get vaccinated,” the top cop said.
As of Sunday, a total of 207,030 police personnel or 91.75 percent of the organization have already been fully inoculated while 15,462 or 6.85 percent have already gotten their 1st dose of the vaccine and are waiting for their 2nd dose.
Another 3,13 or 1.39 percent are yet to be vaccinated with 859 or 0.39 percent identified to have valid reasons while 2,284 or 1.03 percent have failed to provide valid reasons on why they are refusing to get the vaccine.
A report from the PNP Health Service headed by Brigadier Gen. Antonino R. Cirujales said a total of 42,088 police personnel have contracted the virus since March last year although 41,781 of them have already fully recovered from the disease and are now back to full duty status.
The PNP-HS added that since March 2020, there have been 125 COVID-19 deaths in the police force.
Gen. Carlos is pushing for the complete vaccination of all their personnel since it will give them and their families some sort of adequate protection from the deadly virus as they carry out their day-to-day duties to keep the streets safe.
The PNP chief said the “herd immunity” they need in the force is very vital in stopping the spread of the virus even as the government has ordered local government units to ramp up their vaccination efforts in order to have 70 percent of the country’s total population fully inoculated before the end of the year.
