CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City Emergency Operations Center (EOC) reported that for the last 13 days, there are zero Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) transmissions in public and private hospitals in the city.
According to Councilor Joel Garganera, the deputy chief implementor of the EOC, this record has not been seen since the peak of the pandemic in the city in May 2020.
“This is the very first time in the last 13 days that there is no transmission recorded among health workers in our hospitals since May,” said Garganera.
Hospitals are one of the major areas that the EOC has been working on improving the health protocols as they are the “very battlefield of COVID-19.”
Garganera said they began the review of health protocols at least two months ago after one hospital, which he refused to name, has 15 health workers infected with the virus.
“To think that that hospital, in the peak of COVID in June, July, their doctors and health workers did not get infected. So we were concerned why there was a sudden transmission here,” said the councilor.
The EOC suspects that after the peak of the cases, they became complacent, resulting in the rise of infections. This was when the EOC intervened with additional health measures.
After weeks of improving the health protocols, the health workers of hospitals in the city are, as of this time, COVID-19 free.
Garganera said that this is a welcome development since hospitals are starting to have lesser COVID-19 patients as well. Cebu Doctors Hospital recently announced that they no longer have COVID-19 patients.
The councilor said that this “good development” from the health sector should be both an inspiration and a warning to the public.
It is an inspiration because clearing COVID-19 is really possible by following basic health protocols, but a warning as well because complacency is the new enemy.
The EOC is expecting a decrease of the COVID-19 cases in the city but urged the public to remain vigilant so that the cases will not rise again. /rcg