BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The Philippine Army and National Police in Negros Occidental are augmenting Covid-19 contact tracers of various local government units to help in the fight against the spread of the virus.
Col. Inocencio Pasaporte, 303rd Infantry Brigade commander, said yesterday that he had sent two teams of Army personnel, composed of 20 men, to augment the contact tracers of the Bacolod City Police Office.
Pasaporte said that the contract tracers have undergone a seminar conducted by the Department of Health in Region 7 and the National Inter Agency Task Force.
The BCPO has already organized 47 police contact tracers, P/Lt. Col. Ariel Pico, BCPO spokesman, said.
Maj. Edison Garcia, spokesperson of the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office, yesterday said that NOCPPO has 326 contact tracing members composed of police personnel, medical practitioners and volunteers in barangays.
Local government units and health officials are racing against time in the conduct of contact tracing against individuals infected by Covid-19 patients in Negros Occidental, including Bacolod City that recorded at more than 3,500, as of this time.
The Police Regional Office 6 also dispatched two teams of Regional Mobile Force Battalion 6 to help man the 35 inner and outer checkpoints in Bacolod City, which has been placed under Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine from Sept. 8 to 30, due to the increasing number of Covid-19 cases.
Pasaporte said the 303rd Infantry Brigade had sent an initial team of Army engineers, composed of carpenters, plumbers and electricians, to reinforce the Bacolod City engineers to fast track the repair and renovation of quarantine facilities.*