Without test, Cebu City workers not yet allowed to go to towns

Minutes before the start of implementation of the enhanced community quarantine in Cebu City on March 28, policemen monitor vehicles that are leaving the city’s Cebu South Coastal Road border.  | CDND File Photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — While the mandatory testing is not required for returning employees, without the test, freely going back and forth Cebu City may not come yet for workers who reside in the different towns and cities in Cebu province.

Governor Gwendolyn Garcia said that the restriction will stay until it is established that there is a minimal danger to possible infection should employees working in Cebu City be allowed to return to their hometowns.

“If you listen to the mayors, they were only willing [to allow workers to return home] if naa to nga test… Kung wala na nga test, I don’t think they can go back and forth at this point until we shall have established that there is (a) minimal danger to possible infection,” Garcia said.

Read: GCQ transition: ‘Certified healthy’ workers from towns may resume work in Cebu City

In a meeting for the province’s transition to general community quarantine last Friday, May 15, 2020, the mayors initially agreed that the employees will be allowed to return home provided that they will be tested when they go to work and their health status will be regularly monitored.

A number of mayors also said that allowing the employees to go to Cebu City to work and go home to the province should be taken on a case-to-case basis and that the employers should provide for their employees’ transportation to further ensure their safety.

Read: Mandatory rapid test for tri-city workers not recommended yet

The testing of returning employees is one of the components of the Project Balik-Buhay (PBB), a campaign of the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas (OPAV), the tri-cities, and the private sector in coordination with the Department of Health in Central Visayas.

Read: Economic-health balance sought in deciding Cebu HUCs shift to modified ECQ

But last Sunday, May 17, the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7) said the mandatory testing of returning employees is not yet recommended pending the completion of the community rapid testing in the cities of Cebu, Mandaue, and Lapu-Lapu.

With Cebu City having the most number of COVID-19 cases in the region, now over 1,700, the provincial government closed its borders to the city since the implementation of the enhanced community quarantine on March 30 to prevent the spread of the virus into the towns.

Cebu province presently has 70 cases of COVID-19 and is already set to transition to GCQ this Wednesday, May 20. / dcb