Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella. | CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella on Monday, August 31, 2020, says that the city’s chances to be downgraded to a modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) are high.
“Because of the flattening of the curve (in Cebu City), there is a big possibility that we will be downgraded to MGCQ,” Labella told reporters in a press interview on Monday.
Labella, however, said that he had not received any official communication from the national government’s anti-coronavirus task force regarding the city’s quarantine status.
“We have not received any formal message and announcement yet,” said Labella.
The mayor also begged off to comment on the recommendation from the regional police office to extend the city’s general community quarantine (GCQ) status for the next 15 days.
“These are among the things we have to thoroughly discuss, and I don’t want to preempt (it) at this point,” he added.
READ MORE: Ferro’s recommendation for Cebu City: Status quo
Labella attributed the continuous decrease of Cebu City’s active coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases to ‘the joint effort between the police, military, business sector, medical frontliners, and cooperation from the public’.
“We are happy with the joint performance and collective effort in fighting the invisible enemy,” he said.
But he reiterated his previous reminders to the public not to let their guard down just yet, even if improvements in handling the city’s COVID-19 outbreak had been making progress.
“We believe the virus is still very much around. We will be happy (if we are granted with MGCQ) but I hope there will still be restrictions,” Labella said.
READ MORE: Mayor Labella plans to maintain some anti-COVID measures even under MGCQ
Data from the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH – 7) showed that Cebu City’s active COVID-19 cases have decreased to 622 as of August 30.
The city has documented a total of 9,614 confirmed coronavirus patients with 8,343 recoveries and 649 deaths.
The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID) has granted Cebu City a GCQ status last August 1. It was extended until August 31.
Meanwhile, the Malacañang is yet to announce as to when the IATF-MEID will be unveiling the new quarantine statuses of all areas in the country./dbs