Cebu City gov’t to provide aid for residents

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella said the city will try to help the residents who will be affected by this stricter Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ).

Labella said that the city has allotted P500 million for food aid for the residents, which will be coursed through the barangays.

The city will also be asking for the help of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to assist those who have lost their jobs or who will lose their jobs because of the ECQ.

“Through our Sangguniang Panglungsod, they just approved P500 million for relief assistance for the residents of the city. Hopefully, we can downgrade back to GCQ (General Community Quarantine) because the businesses in our city is suffering,” said the mayor.

Secretary Roy Cimatu, the Interagency Task Force (IATF) overseer, said the city can only downgrade to GCQ if they manage to increase the case doubling time, the time for the number of days it takes for the cases to double, from 6.9 days to more than 10 days, and record less active cases in the next few weeks.

Meanwhile, the Cebu City Health will provide vitamins to individuals with an active infection to help them fight the virus and recover faster.

The vitamins will be coursed through the barangays where the barangay isolation centers (BICs).

The City Health is also helping decongest the hospitals by ensuring that the patients are brought to the proper centers according to their symptoms.

Asymptomatic patients will remain in the BICs, mildly and moderate symptomatic patients will be brought to the quarantine centers, and severely symptomatic patients will be brought to the medical facilities. /bmjo