No city-wide lockdown in Cebu City
CEBU CITY, Philippines – Despite reviving stricter quarantine restrictions, Cebu City will not be implementing a city-wide lockdown, local officials here have assured.
“We don’t want any lockdown… It brought hardship to us to our family and economy. When the records stated that (coronavirus cases escalated), we need a wake-up call,” said Councilor Joel Garganera during a press conference on Monday, November 16.
Garganera, who heads the city’s EOC, clarified that the city government had been doing ‘small or granular lockdowns’ in areas where virus transmission had been confirmed to contain its spread.
“Every day, we’re doing little lockdowns in houses and establishments where there are positive patients. That’s a standard operating procedure,” he said.
To recall, the EOC earlier issued a warning that lockdowns in Cebu City could return if the number of new COVID-19 cases would spike.
RELATED STORY: EOC warns lockdown if rising trend in COVID-19 cases continues
For six consecutive days, data from the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7) showed that the city had been logging double-digits in its number of new coronavirus patients.
The trend of recording more additional confirmed cases than recoveries also alarmed not only local but also national officials.
RELATED STORY: 140 new cases in Cebu City in 1 week
Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu, who leads the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID) in the Visayas, was also in the city on Monday to discuss the matter.
For his part, Cimatu admitted that he was alarmed over news that Cebu City’s COVID-19 cases had been increasing even slightly.
“(Was it alarming?) Yes. This is why we had to address the cause of the spike. We have to find out what caused it, and what actions should we undertake,” said Cimatu.
As of November 15, the COVID-19 bulletin from DOH-7 showed that the city’s number of active COVID-19 cases jumped back to 292 from 159 just a week ago.
Garganera also said health experts from the city’s COVID-dedicated command center recorded an increase in the positivity rate of Cebu City.
Shortly before Cimatu’s visit, the city government, led by Mayor Edgardo Labella, decided to reimplement stricter health protocols.
These included stricter border controls wherein non-essential travels are not allowed to Cebu City, and reviving the number-coding scheme among quarantine pass holders.
RELATED STORY: Labella closes Cebu City borders for non-essential entry, q-pass coding returns on Nov. 16
In the meantime, Labella assured that the city’s coronavirus outbreak is still under manageable levels, and that local officials, through the EOC, is doing their best to contain it.
“Relatively, it is not as worse as other places. It is still manageable as far as the city is concerned,” he said.
RELATED STORY: Parties, gatherings among top sources of new COVID infection
Cebu City has been placed under Modified General Community Quarantine (MGCQ) since September and will last until November 30, 2020.
However, it can be recalled that the city was the lone area in the country that reverted back to enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), the strictest form of community quarantine, last June due to a surge of new COVID-19 cases.
It was also previously tagged as the epicenter of the virus outbreak in Central Visayas. /dbs
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