The Philippine National Police (PNP) Administrative Support for Covid-19 Task Force (ASCOTF) on Sunday has reminded all PNP personnel to maintain their respective close contact diary to facilitate the contact tracing efforts should any of them tests positive for coronavirus.

Lt. Gen. Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar, PNP Deputy Chief for Administration and concurrent ASCOTF commander, described the close contact diary of every uniformed and civilian personnel as a mass infection-saving measure amid the continuous rise of Covid-19 cases in the country.

“This diary enables us to immediately identify and isolate every person that made close contact with our personnel in case any of them would become positive from the virus. We in the PNP already have a contact-tracing method based on the diary,” Eleazar said in a statement.

The close contact diary of PNP personnel contains the names of the people they had close contact with on a particular date, time and place. PNP personnel could use notebook as their diary or could use their smartphones or tablets.

“What is important is that the diary will serve its purpose on our contact-tracing efforts. We are all required to log in the diary everyday as part of the measures to contain the spread of the virus not only in our police stations, offices and camps but also in our homes and the community where we live,” said Eleazar.

Once a PNP personnel tests positive for coronavirus, the administrative officer of every police unit is expected to review the diary of the Covid-19 positive personnel to identify all the people he had contact with starting on the days that he is suspected to have contracted the virus.

A total of 78,653 PNP personnel have been subjected to reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) across the country as of January 2, 2021 with 9,066 of them found positive, 8,689 recoveries, and 27 died of Covid-19.

Based on the PNP policy, PNP personnel who were subjected to swab testing would receive a text message of the result of the RT-PCR. The same text message is sent to the administrative officer of the unit where the PNP personnel is assigned.

PNP personnel who made close contact with a coronavirus-positive personnel would be summoned and advised to go to their respective Health Service Units for further assessment on quarantine measures.

On the other hand, the PNP would advise the concerned Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (ESU) of the local government units for monitoring and other quarantine measures of civilians who made close contact with Covid-positive PNP personnel.

“Time is an essential element in preventing the spread of the coronavirus and this diary facilitates contact-tracing efforts and eventually helps a lot in containing mass infection,” Eleazar said.

Eleazar directed all the health safety teams in every station and units to regularly check the diaries of their respective personnel to ensure compliance. (PNA)