Environment Sec. Roy Cimatu (center) talks with Talisay City Mayor Samsam Gullas (left) and Naga City Kristine Chiong (right) after an IATF meeting with local chief executives on Tuesday, August 4, 2020. CDN Digital Photo | Rosalie Abatayo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — With the decreasing number of active cases in the city of Talisay and the municipalities of Consolacion and Minglanilla, Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu, the IATF overseer for the Visayas, said the three local government units (LGUs) are “heading towards the direction” of being downgraded to a modified general community quarantine (MGCQ).
The three LGUs, albeit being components of Cebu province which has been under MGCQ since July 10, remain under general community quarantine (GCQ) because of its high cumulative total cases of the coronavirus disease.
According to the August 4 data of the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7), the total number of infections in Talisay City is at 790 and 411 for both Minglanilla and Consolacion towns.
Despite the high cumulative total and the new cases added daily, the number of recoveries in the three LGUs have already overtaken its active cases.
READ: Talisay has 134 active cases after logging 9 new infections
Talisay City now has only 146 active cases after it logged 565 recoveries and 79 deaths.
Consolacion now has 185 active cases as its number of recoveries hit 202. The town also logged 24 deaths.
The report of the Municipality of Minglanilla, on the other hand, says that only 79 of the town’s 411 cases remain active.
For the month of July, Minglanilla has maintained its number of active cases at below 100 except for July 5 (101 cases), July 20 (100 cases), and July 26 (101 cases).
“Yan ang direction ngayon, papunta na diyan. (That is our direction for now. We are already headed there.) We will be making recommendations regarding that,” Cimatu told CDN Digital in an interview following his meeting with the local chief executives of Cebu province.
Aside from the three LGUs, Cimatu said that Cebu City is also heading towards the possible downgrading of its quarantine status to MGCQ after the city’s present classification would lapse on August 15. / dcb