Labella wants ‘granular lockdowns’ in Cebu City in case of surge of new COVID-19 variant

| CDND File Photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines – Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella plans to reimpose granular lockdowns, not a city-wide lockdown, in the event of a surge of the new variant of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) here.

“If ever there will be a lockdown, God forbid, and the possibility is quite remote, we are inclined [to do] what we have adopted to, which is the sectoral or granular lockdown,” Labella said in a phone interview with CDN Digital.

“Lockdown the building or particular street in the barangay where there is a confirmed infection, not the entire city,” he added.

Scientists have discovered a mutated variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in the United Kingdom (U.K.).

According to a new study, the new variant was on average, 56 percent more contagious than the first virus.

Labella said the city government continues to remind its health department, the Emergency Operations Center (EOC), and the private sector not to let their guards down just yet.

“Our city health department and EOC are doing a good job. With the discovery of the new strain of the virus, then our monitoring should be more stringent,” he said.

The national government is also bracing for the possibility and threats of another spike of infections that may result from the new virus variant.

Here in Cebu, the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7) has requested hospitals to sustain their beds specifically allocated for COVID-19 patients, in wards and intensive care units, in case of another surge of the infection.

READ MORE: PH braces for threat of new virus variant

President Rodrigo Duterte earlier warned the public of the possibility of reimplementing stricter quarantine restrictions such as wide-scale lockdowns.

The President, is also expected to announce on Monday, December 28, the new community quarantine classifications that will be implemented in the country starting January 1, 2021.

Cebu City has been placed under modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) since September but city officials decided to retain the use of quarantine passes.  The city is one of the few local governments in the country that is now under the most relaxed form of community quarantine that continues to do so.

For his part, Labella defended the city’s decision to continue the use of Qpasses, saying that it has contributed in slowing down the spread of the virus here.

“We have consistently adapted the coding system [of our Qpass]… We have now reimposed them [its use] after we suspended them during the Misa de Gallo… This is one of the reasons, I suppose, that has flattened the curve,” he said.

RELATED STORY: 55 Cebu City brgys COVID-free on Dec. 27

Data from the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7) showed that as of December 27, Cebu City only has 81 active cases of COVID-19 or patients still infected with SARS-CoV-2.

Once tagged as the epicenter of the virus outbreak in Central Visayas, the city has documented a total of 10,785 confirmed cases of which 10,014 have already recovered while 690 passed away. / dcb