By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

A cop from the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office (NOCPPO) has succumbed to coronavirus disease 2019, or COVID-19, recently.

NOCPPO spokesperson, Police Lt. Abegael Donasco, refused to name the fatality, but she said the cop was a 42-year-old Police Staff Sergeant assigned in the southern part of the province.

Based on the police officer’s medical history, he was swabbed last June 18 and was admitted to the hospital on June 21 after showing symptoms of COVID-19.

He passed away last Saturday, June 26.

Donasco said the police officer did not have any travel history outside of the province and had not felt sick except for the coughing which prompted him to get an RT-PCR test which later came out positive.

At present, NOCPPO has 34 active COVID-19 cases bringing the total of NOCPPO cops testing positive for COVID-19 to 177./DGB, WDJ