Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella supports the extension of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in Luzon mandated by President Rodrigo Duterte, but for his own city, the mayor wants to further study its necessity.
In a phone interview with CDN Digital, Labella said that there is still a need to review the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) situation in the city before declaring a possible extension.
“At this point in time, we need to study the effects of the ECQ. There is a possibility (of extension) but it will all depend, we still have to assess the situation,” said the mayor.
The ECQ in Cebu City will end on April 28, 2020, despite the city recording 23 COVID-19 cases and 5 deaths of the disease.
The mayor said any extension has to be carefully studied because the ECQ has proven to have detrimental economic consequences.
Yet he said it has also been proven to be effective in controlling the number of cases in the city. In just two weeks, Cebu City cleared more than 700 persons under monitoring (PUMs) and 6 of the positive cases successfully recovered.
These figures are a welcome sign that the ECQ is doing its purpose of controlling the spread of the virus, said Labella.
“That’s a good sign that our lockdown or enhanced community quarantine is working. We will still have to determine if we need to extend it,” he said.
Of course, Labella said he will also consult the Department of Health and the Interagency Task Force for the COVID-19 on whether an extension should be set in place for Cebu City. /rcg