Sixteen police personnel of the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) got infected with coronavirus disease 2019, or COVID-19.

PRO-6 spokesperson Police Lieutenant Colonel Joem Malong said yesterday that out of 29 personnel of the Regional Operations Division (ROD), 16 tested positive for the virus.

Of the 16, three are police commissioned officers (PCOs) and 13 are police non-commissioned officers (PNCOs).

Malong said that a PNCO from ROD together with his superior, a police official, submitted themselves to reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing on Wednesday, April 28, after the former lost his sense of taste. They yielded positive results on Thursday morning.

The remaining ROD personnel immediately underwent RT-PCR tests, and 14 more tested positive for COVID-19.

The 16 ROD personnel were already brought to a quarantine facility. They are all asymptomatic except for the PNCO who lost his sense of taste, Malong added.

The ROD office was already disinfected and the other 13 personnel who yielded negative results are not allowed to go out of their office.

On the other hand, PRO-6 regional director Brigadier General Rolando Miranda said that he also submitted himself to a swab test yesterday after he had a close contact to one of the police officials in ROD.

His staff members and drivers also underwent swab tests and they are all under quarantine at the PRO-6 headquarters while waiting for their test results./WDJ