Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella | PIO Photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella is hopeful that the city will finally be downgraded to a general community quarantine (GCQ) after a month and a half of strict lockdown from June 15 to July 30, 2020.
Labella said in a phone conference that the city had done all it could under the guidance of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) such as the granular lockdowns, massive contact tracing, and increasing the swab testings.
Read more: Magalong: Cebu City’s contact tracing improving
The city has fully implemented these projects even changing the quarantine pass system and requiring all hospitals to submit a daily bed capacity report for monitoring.
The Emergency Operation Center (EOC) has also been established to ensure that protocols on the sitio-based lockdowns will be followed properly and smoothly.
“Not that I am very confident, but I am hopeful that the national government will see our efforts and we will be placed under the GCQ,” said Labella.
Read more: Lalamove transports 70,000 masks for Cebu City’s COVID hotspots
Cebu City Spokesperson Rey Gealon urged the public to continue wearing masks in public, maintain social distancing, and the regular sanitation.
Durign the GCQ, Gealon said that law enforcers would continue to patrol the streets to monitor the public if they would be following the minimum health protocols.
Workplaces should ensure that they are ready for the new set-up in their establishments so that the health protocols are practiced by both employee and client.
“If dili sila mohimi niini, pwede sila maissue-han og show-cause order, or worse, ipasirado sila hangtud sa matuman nila ang kining mga lagda,” said Gealon.
(If they do not follow the guidelines, then they may be issued a show-cause order, or worse, they can be closed until they can follow the protocol.)
Read more: Cimatu: Cebu City may be placed under GCQ starting August 1
Gealon said the data of the Department of Health and the City Health were also being collated to get the accurate number of remaining cases in the city.
Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu, the overseer of the IATF in Cebu, already said in previous statements that he would expect Cebu City to be placed under GCQ by August 1, 2020. /dbs