COVID-19 hits another densely populated area in Cebu City

Satellite Image of Alaska Mambaling, Cebu City | via Google Earth

CEBU CITY, Philippines – Another heavily populated area in one of Cebu City’s barangays recorded triple-digits in their number of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases.

Barangay Mambaling now has 250 COVID-19 patients, the bulk of which are recorded in Alaska Mambaling, an urban poor community similar to Sitio Zapatera in Barangay Luz and Sitio Callejon in Barangay Labangon.

Cebu City on Monday, May 4 logged 188 new COVID-19 cases, 185 of these are from Alaska Mambaling. It has previously reported more than 40 coronavirus patients over the past days.

This development brings Mambaling’s total COVID-19 cases to 250 and overtaking Barangay Luz in terms of areas in Cebu City with the highest number of coronavirus patients.

Meanwhile, Sitio Sto. Niño in Barangay Suba, and P. Del Rosario in Barangay Sambag 1 also recorded additional cases in their territories on Monday.

Barangay Sawang Calero also reported their first COVID-19 patient who is residing in the village’s Sitio Buwaran.

Data from the City Health Department (CHD) showed that the city has breached the 1,000-mark after it already documented a total of 1,089 COVID-19 infections in the city.

They also disclosed that further revalidation of their existing information led them to reduce the city’s previous total from 902 to 901.

Cebu City is the city outside Metro Manila with the highest number of COVID-19 cases, next to Quezon City. More than half of the city’s figures are recorded in congested and heavily populated areas such as urban poor communities and penal facilities.

The continuous rise in coronavirus patients has been attributed to the city’s efforts in conducting massive testing and widened contact tracing./rcg