MANILA - President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday called on the Philippine National Police to help frontliners in conducting contact tracing as cases of coronavirus infections in the country continue to surge.

In a public briefing, Duterte said contact tracers can use resources of the PNP and coordinate with barangay officials so searching for possible COVID-19 patients will be faster.

"Magpahatid na kung anong sasakyan diyan sa pulis sa area na iyan, doon siya sumakay, doon sila sumakay, ihatid sila ng pulis sa boundary. Beyond that ibang pulis na naman ang magsasalo sa kanila para hanapin ang tao,” he said.

Duterte said that if the government only had enough resources and funds, the PNP isn't needed in contact tracing. But for now, the national police has to sacrifice and help frontliners.

“Mga pulis ko, tutal wala kayo masasabi sa akin, full support ako sa inyo at iyong mga kaso ninyo na duty connected, 'wag kayo mag-alala sabi ko dedepensahan ko kayo. Maghintay lang kayo, basta tutulungan ko kayo lahat, ang hinihingi ko lang sa inyo tumulong lang kayo rin, sa ating bayan," he said.

To date, the Philippines has logged a total of 136,638 total confirmed COVID-19 cases. Of this number, 66,186 are considered active cases, while 68,159 have recovered.

There are also 2,293 fatalities.

• PH logs record-high 6,958 new COVID-19 cases; total soars to over 136,000