Brig. Gen. Michael John Dubria, director of the Police Regional Office-12 (Photo courtesy of PRO-12)
GENERAL SANTOS CITY – The Police Regional Office in Soccsksargen (PRO-12) has launched an investigation into the reported protocol violations committed by a police official assigned in one of its support units who tested positive for the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
Brig. Gen. Michael John Dubria, PRO-12 director, told reporters here on Saturday afternoon that the concerned official did not undergo proper quarantine despite being considered as suspect Covid-19 case due to a recent travel in Metro Manila.
He said the latter, who holds the rank of major and assigned in a provincial field unit of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-12, was subjected to the required reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction testing last Aug. 20.
But he said the police official, who was confirmed positive of the disease on Aug. 27, had reported for duty and even attended a seminar at the regional headquarters in Barangay Tambler here last Aug. 24.
“This is against protocol. He should have stayed home or in quarantine since his test result was still pending then,” Dubria said.
He said the CIDG officer could face charges for violating the guidelines and safety protocols against Covid-19 set by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.
The police official said investigators are currently looking into the latter’s other activities during the period.
As of Saturday, he said at least 16 police personnel, including several officials who joined the seminar, are now under isolation at the PRO-12 headquarters.
Dubria said they have been closely coordinating the matter with the Department of Health in Region 12 and all their lined-up activities since Friday were already cancelled.
He said massive decontamination and disinfection activities were also conducted in the last two days in all offices and facilities within the PRO-12 complex.
The PRO-12 earlier alerted all its units and personnel in the region due to the rising cases of suspected Covid-19 local transmission.
DOH-12 has recorded possible locally-transmitted infections in this city, Cotabato City and in parts of South Cotabato, North Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat.
On Saturday night, 14 more confirmed Covid-19 cases were recorded in Region 12, with 10 coming from this city, three from South Cotabato and one from Sarangani.
Five of the new cases here have history of exposure to a coronavirus patient while the five others are still for “further investigation,” a DOH-12 advisory said.
The three cases in South Cotabato, all from Surallah also had exposure to a Covid-19 patient, while the lone patient in Sarangani had travel history from Davao City.
As of Sunday morning, the confirmed Covid-19 cases in Soccksargen already reached a total of 438, with five deaths and 325 recoveries.
South Cotabato posted the most number of cases with 110, followed by this city with 75, Sarangani and Sultan Kudarat with 74 each, North Cotabato with 59 and Cotabato City with 46. (PNA)
