By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

Faced with a recent surge in coronavirus cases, Bacolod City finds an ally in the Philippine Army and Philippine National Police (PNP) in Negros Occidental that will send personnel to reinforce the city’s Covid-19 contact tracers.

The Negros island-based 303rd Infantry Brigade of the Philippine Army will send two teams composed of 20 men to augment the contact tracers of the Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO), brigade commander Col. Inocencio Pasaporte said.

Pasaporte said their contract tracers attended a seminar conducted by the Department of Health in Region 7 and the National Inter-Agency Task Force.

The Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office (NOPPO) will also send part of its 326 contact tracing members composed of police personnel, medical practitioners and volunteers in barangays, NOPPPO spokesperson Maj. Edison Garcia said.

BCPO spokesman, Police Lt. Colonel Ariel Pico, said the BCPO has already organized 47 police contact tracers.

Meanwhile, the Police Regional Office 6 deployed two teams of Regional Mobile Force Battalion 6 to help man the 35 inner and outer checkpoints in Bacolod City.

Pasaporte also 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.

Bacolod City was placed under modified enhanced community quarantine from September 8 to 30, amid the increasing number of Covid-19 cases which is now pegged at 2,165./DGB, WDJ