CEBU CITY, Philippines — With people now going out of their homes to report for work or do some errands, the risk of infection has become a major concern for the Cebu City Emergency Operations Center (EOC).
Councilor Joel Garganera, the EOC head, reported a rise in index cases of the coronavirus disease in the city with the loosening of quarantine restrictions.
Index cases involve patients manifesting symptoms of the infection and who were swabbed in private hospitals or cluster clinics.
Garganera said that on Thursday, Oct. 8, and Friday, Oct. 9, EOC logged 18 and 13 new cases of the infection respectively and most of these were found to be index cases.
This leads him to the conclusion that these patients got their infection at their workplaces or while visiting public places.
“There are areas and sources of infection nga na reveal na sa data. Most of the cases kay tested because of medical, travel, or work requirements. This is a sign that we really can’t be complacent because the virus is still around,” he said.
Garganera said that around 80 percent of the recent transmissions recorded by EOC were traced to have started while the patients were outside of their homes. About 24 percent of them contracted the infection while visiting public markets.
While no deaths have been recorded in Cebu City for the month of October, the risk of contracting the infection remains.
He said that the number of daily cases that were detected for the months of June to August 2020 was relatively low compared to the previous months since the case doubling time is now at 20 days.
Active cases in the city are currently on a plateau.
Still, Garganera said that a possible rise in the cases of infection is not remote.
He is asking Cebuanos to remain at home if possible. If there was a need to go out of their homes, they should never forget to wear face masks and observe health and safety protocols while in public places.
The EOC head also reiterated his opposition against the reopening of cinemas saying that this will only put people at risk of the infection.
“We are open-minded for the reopening of the cinemas, but we should make sure that the health protocols strict and everything will be safe even for our senior citizens,” he said. / dcb