CEBU CITY, Philippines –Cebu City will now be going back to basics in its fight against the coronavirus disease.
This means ensuring the observance of social distancing protocols, the need to always wear facemasks, movement limitations, and the implementation of the 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew.
Mayor Edgardo Labella stressed the need to implement these quarantine protocols in a dialog with barangay officials on Friday, June 19, 2020.
“We really have to intensify the implementation of the ECQ (enhanced community quarantine) guidelines. The barangays, law enforcement, and the people themselves must cooperate,” Labella said.
Labella said that he shifted his focus to the revival of the city’s economic activities after Cebu City was placed under general community quarantine.
Now that the city’s status has been reverted to ECQ, Labella said that his administration’s focus will also go back to preventing the further spread of the infection.
Read: It’s back to ECQ for Cebu City
Labella said he will continue to oversee the implementation of quarantine protocols while he also awaits the response of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID) on his appeal for a GCQ status in Cebu City.
He said that with COVID-19 cases in the city now under control, city residents also deserve more relaxed regulations.
Contrary to the IATF perception, Labella said that the city government has already set up a system to take care of the COVID-19 positive individuals.
Asymptomatic patients are sent to barangays isolation centers while those with mild to moderately symptoms are referred to the city’s quarantine centers. The severely symptomatic patients, on the other hand, are sent to the hospitals for treatment.
Labella said that the operation of isolation facilities and the city’s quarantine centers reduces the number of patients who had to be rushed to the hospitals, one of the most pressing concerns raised by IATF.
He said that the city government is also prepared to take care of the needs of its citizens by providing them with relief goods while they remain under home quarantine until June 30.
A total of 200, 000 sacks of rice is now ready for distribution to the city’s 80 barangays starting next week.
This time, Labella said that he has given the instruction to give rice assistance to all city residents.
Labella said that even city government employees will also be getting their hazards pays soon after the City Council already passed supplement budget no. 3 which include an allocation for the purpose.
Franklyn Ong, president of the Association of Barangay Councils (ABC), said that the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) has authorized barangay officials to also receive hazard pay.
“This is good news that we can have hazard pay for our barangay officials as well,” said Ong. / dcb