MANDAUE CITY, Philippines – Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes believes there is no need for his city to revert to general community quarantine (GCQ) from its current modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) status despite the rising number of new COVID-19 cases noted lately.
Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes | Photo courtesy of Mandaue City PIO
Cortes said that the rise is still not alarming to warrant a return to GCQ, the second most relaxed level of quarantine.
Cortes said they already expected the cases to rise because of the long holiday break where a lot of people were going out.
In less than two weeks, the city’s COVID-19 active cases rose from 22 last December 31, 2020, to 80 as of January 11, 2021.
“Para nako dili pa gyud nanginahanglan nga mag GCQ, kinahanglan nato coordination sa public, hopefully, manaog ni no, mangayo tag tabang ni Sr. Sto. Niño nga unta mapugngan ang pagsaka sa Covid kay dili na gyud ma afford ato’ng mga kagamhanan mapa national o local,” said Cortes
Cortes is asking for the cooperation of the residents and asked them to not be complacent.
He said because the city logged no new cases in the previous months, the public tended to relax.
“We should not be complacent kay tungod nakita nga ah nakaya nato nga zero cases and looked what happened? Nga ang tawo nangguwa, unya ato’ng mga public utilities nagpasobra sa ila’ng mga capacity sa gi allow sa local IATF, nisaka gyud, ” he said.
Meanwhile, Cortes said the city will purchase COVID-19 vaccines but will coordinate first with the national government.
Cortes added that the procurement of the vaccines was not included in the city’s 2021 budget appropriations but the city will realign funds. /rcg