Parts of Cebu City are seen from the mountains of Barangay Busay in this photo taken on September 26, 2020. CDN Digital photo | Brian J. Ochoa
CEBU CITY, Philippines – Recent statistics has shown that the outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Cebu City may have massively improved in the past few weeks but health officials here are still reluctant to further ease quarantine restrictions.
The Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7) on Monday, October 12, 2020, has recommended for Cebu City to have its modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) status extended until mid-December, saying that quarantine restrictions should still be in place to help Cebuanos celebrate a safer holiday season.
“We would not want another surge to happen here when we’re having Christmas. So we recommend that it would be better for Cebu City to extend its MGCQ (status) up to mid-December so that we would be able to enjoy a safer Christmas,” said Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, spokesperson of DOH-7.
Loreche said the possibility of Cebu City graduating to the ‘new normal’ classification in the next couple of months could lead to complacency among Cebuanos which could lead to another wave of increasing new cases.
“Despite the fact that there is an improvement of our cases, including our critical care utilization which is already less than 15 percent as of October 11, but we might forget the virus still exists,” said Loreche.
“We’re already under MGCQ but we still see people not wearing their masks. If we proceed to the new normal after two months, we might forget that the virus is still here,” she added.
The DOH-7 official also reminded families not to bring along their minor children or those below 21 years old and senior citizens in their leisure activities outside their houses.
Loreche reminded the families following reports that some of them were spotted in public places with their minor children and elderly relatives despite present protocols mandating them to stay inside their homes.
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Since September 1, Cebu City has been downgraded to the most relaxed form of community quarantine, MGCQ, by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID).
As of October 11, data from DOH-7 showed that the city had already documented a total of 10,123 confirmed COVID-19 cases, of which 9,091 had already recovered.
Health officials also tallied a total of 676 mortalities related to the infection, which would mean that the number of active cases, or patients still infected with the virus, had remained at just 356.
Since October 1, one of the city’s designated quarantine centers has suspended operations due to the declining trend of new COVID-19 cases.
This development was welcomed by several government officials, including DOH-7, which cited this as a milestone in Cebu City’s efforts to in sustaining a flattened epidemiological curve.
/bmjo
RELATED STORY: Quarantine center in Cebu suspends operations as COVID cases decrease