Policemen man a the checkpoint in V. Rama Avenue along, Baranagay Calamba, Cebu City on these June 25, 2020 photo. Today, July 11, PRO-7 Chief Albert Ignatius Ferro suggests that Cebu City will have a gradual downgrade of its quarantine status. | CDN Digital file photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — A gradual downgrade from the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) would be ideal for Cebu City.
This is the what Police Brigadier General Albert Ignatius Ferro, Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7) director, would suggest to the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) regarding the next plan for the quarantine status of the city after ECQ extensions.
Read more: Rama not keen on GCQ for Cebu City after July 15
According to Ferro, he was afraid that cases would spike up when the city would immediately be downgraded to GCQ because the public would be prone to violate health protocols.
He said a gradual downgrade from ECQ to MEQC and then GCQ, would be give them time to assess if the public would be able to still strictly observe the protocols such as wearing of face masks and social distancing.
Ferro said they might ask for at least seven days before the city would be downgraded to GCQ.
Read more: Report about hard lockdown for 3 days not true – Ferro
He added that so far, the Cebuanos were observing the health standards and had helped at least slow down the rate of multiplied cases.
“Ang atoang gibuhat karon is to come up with harmonized results, harmonized statistics sa city ug sa DOH-7 so that we could come up with a better contact tracing,” said Ferro.
(What we are doing now is to come up with harmonized results, harmonized statistics of the city and the DOH-7 so that we could come up with a better contact tracing.)
Ferro said that if they would be able to gather the exact data, they would be able to come up with a better contact tracing system so that we could have an accurate analysis on the general situation of the city.
The information from the analysis would then lead to the appropriate actions to properly address the problem on the rising cases of the city./dbs