The chief of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) on Wednesday said 51 cops from Police Station 3 deployed during President Rodrigo Duterte's State of the Nation Address (SONA) were among the 82 cops that were found positive for COVID-19.

"118 (cops) from Police Station 3 participated in our SONA activity and 51 were tested positive," Brig. Gen. Antonio Yarra said in a press briefing.

"They are on different points of deployment," Yarra said.

Of the 51 cops, 26 were deployed in the area of the rallyists.

Yarra said the COVID-19 testing was a program of the city government and not a requirement from the Philippine National Police (PNP) for their SONA deployment.

"That (RT-PCR test) is not part of the procedure because they are healthy and not showing any symptoms," he said.

The policemen were tested last July 23.

Yarra said they are still investigating where the transmission came from.

"We cannot attribute (the infection) on the SONA activity. As to whether they infect others, we cannot say... That's why we are conducting contact tracing," he said.

"We know for a fact that transmission can be evident after five days of close contact with positive patient. We are still coordinating with the city health office on the result of their testing and result of contact tracing," he said.

Earlier, QC Mayor Joy Belmonte confirmed that 82 cops from PS3- Talipapa were tested positive for COVID-19. They were all brought to the quarantine facility.

Belmonte said all infected cops were asymptomatic and vaccinated. Ella Dionisio/DMS