THE Philippine National Police (PNP) on Saturday mourned the death of its 103rd COVID-19 fatality – a 32-year-old police officer who died on Thursday in a private hospital just a day after he was transferred from the Kiangan Emergency Treatment Facility (KETF) after his condition worsened.

PNP chief General Guillermo Lorenzo T. Eleazar said that the policeman tested positive for the virus last August 23 and was admitted at the KETF inside Camp Crame.

Two days later, he was transferred to a nearby hospital due to his worsening condition. However, he succumbed to death on the same day.

A report from the PNP Health Service (HS) showed that the policeman received his 1st dose of COVID-19 vaccine last August 4.

“Ako po ay taos pusong nakikiramay sa pamilya ng ating pulis. Ang buong hanay ng Pambansang Pulisya ay nagluluksa sa pagkamatay po ng ating mga kasamahan dahil sa COVID-19,” Eleazar said.

The top cop said that the PNP-HS headed by Brigadier Gen. Luisito P. Magnaye also recorded 234 new cases of COVID-19 infection among PNP personnel bringing the total number of active cases in the force to 1,778.

Since March 2020, there have been a total of 33,975 police personnel who have contracted the disease.

However, 32,234 of them have already fully recovered from the infection and are now back to full duty status. They include 160 policemen who have newly-recovered from the virus.

Eleazar said more than 90 percent of the entire 220,000 PNP personnel he been vaccinated, with 96,455 or 43.28 percent fully vaccinated while 105,031 or 47.13 percent are awaiting their 2nd dose to complete the inoculation.

With this, there are only 21,371 or 9.59 percent of the PNP who have not been vaccinated to date.

The PNP chief has called on his men to be extra cautious as they continue their anti-criminality campaign while strictly enforcing Inter-Agency Task Force minimum public health safety protocols needed to thwart further virus transmissions in Metro Manila and the rest of the country

Of the 103 COVID-19 fatalities in the force, the highest-ranked was a Brigadier General assigned in Camp Crame who was already preparing for his retirement when he died in a hospital last April 16. The star-rank official is a product of the PNP Academy.

Eleazar and his two top deputies, PNP Deputy Chief for Administration and concurrent Administrative Support for COVID-19 Task Force Lieutenant Gen. Joselito M. Vera Cruz, and PNP Deputy Chief for Operations and concurrent Joint COVID-19 Task Force commander Lt. Gen. Israel Ephraim T. Dickson, have called on their men to take all necessary precautions as they perform their day-to-day duties to keep the streets safe while helping reduce the further spread of the virus especially its more dangerous variants.

Since last August 1, there have been a total of 23 police personnel who have died after contracting COVID-19.

Most of the fatalities this month are yet to be given anti-COVID, anti-flu or anti-pneumonia vaccines and were found to be suffering from different comorbidity.