Guadalupe to lift Sunday restrictions only if cases decrease

CEBU CITY, Philippines—As of January 24, 2021, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has already affected 30 out of the 85 sitios (sub-villages in English) of Barangay Guadalupe here.

Because of this, village officials in Guadalupe are inclined to keep restrictions until such time that the number of cases will decrease. 

Guadalupe Barangay Captain Michael Gacasan expressed alarm after they recorded a total of 60 new COVID-19 cases and only one recovery related to the infection in the past week. 

“It’s an alarming development. We only had one recovery in one week,” Gacasan told reporters in Cebuano during a press interview on Monday, January 25, 2021. 

Gacasan said they decided to impose a stay-at-home and no-business-operations every Sunday after they discovered that most of the newly confirmed COVID-19 patients went out of their homes every Sunday.

“There’s really a lot of people going outside every Sunday. This is why we decided to impose more stringent protocols every Sunday. If the cases will decrease soon, there’s a possibility that we might lift them,” he explained. 

Barangay Guadalupe issued separate resolutions, advising residents to stay at home, and requesting business establishments to cease operations every Sunday.

The rule took effect last Sunday, January 24.

Read: Checkpoints, empty streets as Guadalupe enforces ‘Stay at Home Sundays’

Gacasan on Monday said a total of 12 individuals were apprehended for violating the new rules. He said most of them happened to be minors. 

/bmjo