Cebu City braces for new COVID variant, eyes stricter border controls

CDN FILE PHOTO 2019 / TONEE DESPOJO

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Local officials in Cebu City are now bracing for the threats of a new variant of SARS-CoV-2 considered to be more infectious than the original.

Members of the city’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) gathered for a consultative meeting on Monday, December 28, to discuss initial plans and actions in response to news of the mutated SARS-CoV-2 spreading in different parts of the world.

SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) which has already infected over 10,000 individuals in Cebu City as of December 27.

The new variant was first reported in the United Kingdom (UK).

Councilor Joel Garganera, who heads the city’s EOC, said they are planning to enhance existing health protocols as well as imposing stricter border controls.

“This new variant, it is a wake-up call that we should preserve more of our guards. We should not lower our guards,” said Garganera in a virtual press conference.

Presently, the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7) and Cebu City’s EOC have not recorded any COVID-19 patients infected with the new variant of the virus. Both also said there are no COVID-19 patients who had recent travel history from areas where the presence of the new virus is reported.

“Based on the report from BOQ (Bureau of Quarantine) and OWWA (Overseas Workers Welfare Administration), there are no recent returning OFWs from UK and other countries that recorded the new variant,” said Garganera.

Based on a tally made by INQUIRER.net, as of December 28, there are already 14 countries that have documented cases of the mutated variant of SARS-CoV-2.

These are Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Lebanon, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, and The Netherlands.

Border restrictions, no city-wide lockdowns

Among the proposals raised by local officials and experts is to impose a uniform set of protocols against COVID-19 in the entire island of Cebu, particularly in seaports and the Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA).

“The challenge here is those who came from abroad through transit flights. In Mactan, we don’t have direct flights from UK, and passengers from UK will have to transit via Clark or NAIA (Ninoy Aquino International Airport),” said Garganera.

Mayor Edgardo Labella earlier said he was more inclined to reimpose ‘granular’ and not city-wide lockdowns in the event that new COVID-19 cases would surge due to the presence of the mutated virus.

Garganera and DOH-7 also shared the same sentiments.

“Granular is the thing right now. We don’t have to lock down the entire city. Granular lockdowns are our innovation in addressing and containing the virus. We have to be mindful that our economy is also suffering,” said Garganera.

In a separate virtual press conference, Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, spokesperson of DOH-7, also said their department was recommending more stringent border controls and not wide-scale lockdowns.

Loreche also advised port managers to closely monitor passengers who recently travelled from countries where the new variant had been documented by subjecting them a mandatory 14-day quarantine, regardless if they tested negative of COVID-19 from their point of origin.

“We recommend that for returning OFWs from these countries, we should do away with the existing protocols that require them to be swabbed upon arrival here,” said Loreche.

“They should be subjected under a 14-day quarantine, regardless if their RT-PCR (real time-polymerase chain reaction) tests yield negative results,” she added. /dbs

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

RELATED STORY: New COVID-19 strain not likely to affect vaccine development, experts say