Bernadas: Barangay Mambaling on recovery stage

Some individuals beat the heat of the sun by taking a dip in the waters off Barangay Mambaling in Cebu City on Friday, May 22, 2020. | CDN Digital file photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Barangay Mambaling in Cebu City has reached its peak and is now undergoing convalescence or recovery of cases.

This was the statement of Doctor Jaime Bernadas, the director of the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7), over the situation in Barangay Mambaling, which remains as the sole barangay in the city with the highest number of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases.

Mambaling, particularly in the subdivision Alaska, which comprised of 16 sitios, has almost 700 COVID-19 cases.

Yet Bernadas said that the new cases in the barangay have dwindled in the past weeks, indicating a slower community transmission rate, which in turn signifies that the imposition of lockdown was successful.

“[The whole of] Barangay Mambaling has been declared a red zone. Now, we are on the process of possible unlocking of the barangay from a lockdown. We are monitoring the cases there every day,” said Bernadas.

Second wave

So far, the DOH has monitored fewer new cases from the barangay and more recoveries. Most of the cases also do not graduate to severe forms of the illness and are usually asymptomatic.

The barangay is mostly on the recovery stage, the community transmission has slowed down, and the DOH is closely monitoring the progress of the most affected areas.

Still, Bernadas said the lockdown cannot easily be lifted because community transmission can still be a threat for a possible second wave of the cases.

With this, he assured the residents that the DOH and the city government is continuously monitoring and assessing the situation for the possibility of lifting the lockdown. /bmjo