Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia inspects the border checkpoint of Mandaue City and Cebu City along AS Fortuna Street a few hours after the start of the province’s enhanced community quarantine. | Rosalie O. Abatayo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — At 12:01 a.m. Monday, March 30, Cebu province has officially entered enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).
Everyone in the province’s 44 towns and seven cities, except those covered by exemptions due to their work and health status, are now confined to their homes.
But aside from the stay-at-home protocol, the province has also closed its borders to Cebu City due to the rising number of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases here. Cebu City has now 20 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with three deaths.
Governor Gwendolyn Garcia earlier said that she was now regarding Cebu City as the “epicenter” of COVID-19 infection in the province.
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Police checkpoints have been installed in its boundaries in Barangay Bulacao and the Cebu South Coastal Road in Talisay City in the south; Barangay Gaas, Balamban in the west; and Barangays Canduman, Cabancalan and Subangdaku in Mandaue City in the north.
Garcia lead the inspection of the checkpoints in Talisay City and Mandaue City at past midnight on Monday.
Garcia said she would be releasing a memorandum to further set guidelines on the mobility restrictions during the ECQ.
“I intend nga magkahugot ug magkahugot pa gyud na. If we talk about MCWD, I will ask MCWD to specifically identify kung kinsa ray pwede molusot. Karon ato lang nang i-general,” Garcia said.
(I intend to tighten and tighten more the restrictions. If we talk about MCWD, I will ask MCWD to specifically identify those who would be allowed to pass. For now, we will just make it general.)
“We willl get stricter, stricter and stricter. Sama sa atong gihimo sa una, magsugod ta og general and broad strokes but hinay-hinay sa pagrefine ug pag-enhance. Hugtan og samot while we are trying our best to control and contain the spread of this virus,” Garcia said.
(We will get stricter, stricter and stricter. Just like what we did before, we will start with general and broad strokes, but we will slowly refine and enhance these measures. We will tighten the restrictions while we are trying our best to control and contain the spread of the virus.)
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Except for medical frontline workers, utility field workers, and government officials and employees that are exempted from the border closure, nobody is allowed to enter the province from Cebu City anymore.
Garcia has also called on the public to comply with the protocols of the province’s ECQ and to realize that the present scenario is no longer “business as usual.”
“Our measures is not meant to make life difficult for you. This is to ensure that you have a life to live when this is over,” Garcia said./dbs