Dine-in restaurants told: Be extra vigilant

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Dine-in restaurants must be extra vigilant because eating is one common way of spreading the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Councilor Joel Garganera, deputy chief implementor of the Emergency Operation Center (EOC), said on Thursday, September 3, 2020, that dine-ins might be a new spreading site for the virus if the restaurants would not be careful.

“When we eat, we are very vulnerable because we take out our masks. This is one of the suspected reasons why transmission is prevalent in the workplace. People who dine together talk to each other,” said the councilor.

Under the modified general community quarantine (MGCQ), restaurants in the city can accommodate up to 75 percent of dine-in customers.

Although the EOC has not recorded a spike on cases due to restaurant establishments, Garganera said they were closely monitoring these types of establishments to ensure they would be compliant with health protocols.

Read: DTI: Restaurants’ dine-in capacity to further expand, LGUs encouraged to move curfew time

“They don’t have to really accept the maximum 75 percent capacity. They have to be circumspect and decide how many customers they can handle without compromising safety,” added the councilor.

Although the active COVID-19 cases in Cebu City has dropped to less than 600 and the new cases average 10 to 15 per day, the EOC is still working on decreasing the number of COVID-19 incidents in the city.

As of now, household transmission only makes up 34 percent of the new cases, while outside transmission makes up almost 67 percent.

Read: Workplace transmission comprises almost 50% of Cebu City’s new cases

Transmission in the market place accounts for half of the outside transmission while the other half are in workplaces and other public areas.

The barangays have been instructed to strengthen the implementation of health protocols in the public markets to control the spread of the virus in these areas./dbs