THE Philippine National Police (PNP) has provided full support to the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Disease (IATF-EID) not only in enforcing quarantine measures but most importantly in building facilities to take care of its officers and men who have contracted the deadly COVID-19 virus since March last year, PNP chief, General Debold M. Sinas told the Journal Group.

“Ang concept namin is we also need to protect our officers and men who are out there in the streets manning Quarantine Control Points and anti-criminality checkpoints and those assigned to go after criminals wherever they are. We have to prevent, protect, isolate, treat, rehabilitate and reintegrate them,” the top cop said.

This is the reason why they already have their own COVID-19 isolation facilities in Camp Crame which is the PNP National Headquarters, the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) and other police regional offices. Other provincial and city offices are also connecting with their respective local government units to help establish their own facilities, he added.

Sinas also saw to it that PNP Station Health Units (SHUs) will be fully activated in all offices in Camp Crame, the different Police Regional Offices as well as provincial, city and municipal police stations.

These SHUs are manned by police nurses and graduates of other related professions, all tasked to monitor their fellows and be involved in their internal contract tracing system.

PNP-HSU personnel are regularly checking the medical situation of their officemates and reporting to the PNP Health Service headed by Brigadier Gen. Luisito P. Magnaye or their LGUs the presence of any of their peers who need to be subjected to quarantine in the event they show symptoms of the virus and are later tested positive for COVID-19.

The PNP CODA or COVID Data Form being managed by the Administrative Support for COVID-19 Task Force headed by PNP Deputy Chief for Administration, Lieutenant Gen. Guillermo Lorenzo T. Eleazar has also been successful in monitoring virus cases in the organization since last year.

Enhanced Treatment Facility

Sinas said that since last November, they have also further enhanced their effort to protect their men by establishing not only quarantine and isolation facilities but most importantly, treatment facilities for their men with mild COVID-19 cases.

He cited the Kiangan Emergency Treatment Facility (KETF) in Camp Crame which caters to police personnel from Metro Manila, Central Luzon and Calabarzon regions with mild virus cases.

Policemen who are considered ‘asymptomatic’ are confined at the PNP facilities in Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, Taguig City; Nice Hotel, Ultra, PICC and those being maintained by local government units.

Sinas boasted that the KETF has the real capability to treat patients once their symptoms are detected at their early stage.

“We already have three portable digital x-ray, two in KETF and one in Bicutan, we have cardiac monitors, a defibrillator and 150 oxygen tanks. In fact, almost all our rooms in Kiangan have oxygen tanks, with doctors and nurses doing a round-the clock monitoring of the patients and giving them oxygen once they need it,” the PNP chief said.

It’s the first time that the Kiangan facility has gotten a defibrillator which is a device that restores normal heartbeat by sending an electric pulse or shock to the heart. They are used to prevent or correct an arrhythmia, a heartbeat that is uneven or that is too slow or too fast. Defibrillators can also restore the heart’s beating if the heart suddenly stops.

PNP Director for Logistics, Major Gen. Angelito A. Casimiro said that their facilities also have portable and regular ventilators and a stockpile of PPEs, alcohol and medicines.

Sinas said that aside from the modern medical equipment, they have also acquired the free service of an infectious disease expert from Asian Hospital who volunteered his service to their doctors thru Zoom consultation.

At present, five internal medicine doctors are dedicated to the KEFT and Bicutan.

“We’re just using Zoom para mapabilis and mas marami ang makapag-observe,” he said.

Remdesivir use saved lives of 26 cops

Sinas said they have also started using Remdesivir, the same medicine being used by other private hospitals and other antibiotics to treat their patients and reinforce their immune system.

During the upsurge in COVID-19 cases last month, he said that for almost three weeks, KETF staff treated 27 patients who developed mild to moderate to severe cases.

He said that of the 27 patients who received Remdesivir, 26 were able to fully recover while only one failed to maintain his oxygen level and was transferred to another hospital.

“We’re implementing protocols similar to private hospitals. But we just have to imagine the problem of having to wait for days to be given a room in a private hospital,” he lamented.