Palace says Cebu City’s COVID-19 figures very ‘alarming’

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque. INQUIRER file photo

MANILA, Philippines — The COVID-19 numbers in Cebu City are now at an “alarming” state, Malacañang said Tuesday after President Rodrigo Duterte placed the city back under strict lockdown measures to curtail the further spread of the respiratory disease.

According to Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, the Department of Health (DOH) reported that Cebu City’s critical care capacity is now at the “danger level,” prompting Duterte to place the city back to enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), the government’s most stringent quarantine classification, starting June 16 until June 30.

Roque also noted that Cebu City has already overtaken Quezon City as the area with the highest COVID-19 infection in the Philippines.

“The numbers in Cebu City are now alarming. They have exceeded the number of confirmed cases in Quezon City on a per-day basis, meaning they now have the highest incidence of COVID-19 in the country,” Roque said in an interview over CNN Philippines.

However, in an interview over ABS-CBN’s Teleradyo, Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella said they will ask for the loosening of the lockdown in the city, claiming that the recent spike in new cases is due to the city’s aggressive COVID-19 testing program.

As of June 12, Cebu City has 3,361 COVID-19 cases, with 1,710 recoveries, and 33 deaths or a mortality rate of 1.1 percent.

Labella earlier said he wants the Queen City of the South to remain under GCQ after June 15 so it would contain the virus as well as open some businesses to jumpstart the province’s stalled economy.

Cebu City, along with Metro Manila, transitioned last June 1 to a more lenient general community quarantine (GCQ) to revive business operations affected by the pandemic.

However, Metro Manila remained under GCQ until June 30.

JPV