Seventy-one more persons, including Negros Occidental provincial police director Col. Romel Palgue, who were at a Provincial Anti-Drug Abuse Summit in Bacolod City on January 22, have tested negative for COVID-19.
They were tested for the virus after a Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) official from Iloilo at the summit tested positive for COVID-19.
Negros Occidental Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson and Board Member Juvy Pepello, DILG OIC provincial head Roselyn Quintana and assistant regional director Maria Calpiza Sardua, and Assistant Regional Director Donelyn Hemedez of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, who were also at the summit, had earlier tested negative for the virus.
Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said 50 policemen, including Palgue, who were swabbed Tuesday tested negative for COVID-19.
Twenty-one DILG personnel in Negros Occidental have also tested negative for the virus, Zeaphard Gerhart Caelian, Provincial Incident Management team chief, also said.*