ILOILO City – Thirty-two policemen in the municipality of Lemery, Iloilo are on station quarantine.
Their chief – Police Captain Edwin Belarmino – was found infected with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) when he went home to Negros Occidental on Jan. 24.
As a part of precautionary measures, all personnel of the Lemery police station were isolated. They were also swabbed and their specimens would be tested for COVID-19, Colonel Gilbert Gorero, provincial police chief, said.
But Gorero made it clear the Lemery police station was not locked down.
“All personnel inside the police station are under strict quarantine. The station, however, in not on lockdown. Our men are still doing administrative work,” he explained.
The COVID-19 test results of Lemery cops are expected to be released today. They will not be allowed to go out of their station without a negative result.
On the other hand, Belarmino was asymptomatic. It was still unclear how he contracted the viral illness.
While under facility quarantine in Bacolod City for 14 days, he instructed his deputy chief of police Lieutenant Francis Batallanes to lead the Lemery municipal police station.
Some personnel of the Iloilo Police Provincial Office’s 2nd Mobile Group were deployed to augment the town’s police force.
On Jan. 22, the police station in San Joaquin, Iloilo was placed on lockdown after three inmates and a police officer tested positive for COVID-19.
Lieutenant Dionisio Estacio, San Joaquin police chief, said their police station had been on lockdown since Friday.
Six of the police personnel who were exposed to the inmates underwent swabbing. Three turned out positive./PN
