Quarantine violators wait to be profiled at the Plaza Independencia. | CDN FILE PHOTO 2021
CEBU CITY, Philippines – Close to 1,000 individuals were caught in Cebu City since January 1 for violating quarantine restrictions and not following other health protocols, police said.
Police Lieutenant Colonel Wilbert Parilla, deputy director for operations of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), said they rounded up almost a thousand residents for not complying with rules aimed at preventing the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Parilla told reporters in a press briefing on Thursday, January 28 that most of the offenders paid the administrative fine of P500 as a penalty.
He also said most of them were cited for violating curfew hours, failing to present quarantine passes (QPass), and not wearing face masks.
On Wednesday, January 27, alone, the CCPO official disclosed that they rounded up at least 116 individuals here for not following the curfew hours and not wearing face masks.
Curfew in Cebu City begins at 11 p.m. and ends at 5 a.m. the next day.
The police, however, wanted to reimpose longer curfew hours by adjusting it to 10 p.m. instead of 11 p.m. as part of their plans to reinforce existing health protocols amid rising cases of COVID-19 here.
For his part, Mayor Edgardo Labella said he will be consulting other stakeholders, particularly members of the business sector, first before making any decision.
While the police wait for Labella’s formal announcement on their proposal, Parilla said they have noted a slight decrease in the number of individuals violating curfew in the past few days.
“Many are still found violating quarantine but not as many as those we arrested in the past few days wherein we really see a lot of people outside,” he added in Cebuano.
The CCPO also reminded workers to indicate the length and time of their shifts on their certificates of employment (COE) so police can check whether or not they will be allowed to go outside once curfew starts.
“We will be giving workers and APORs (Authorized Person Outside of Residence) a grace period of three hours for them to either go home or go to work, especially those in the graveyard shifts or working for 24/7 establishments,” Parilla said.
Cebu City is under modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) since September 2020.
But lately, its number of active COVID-19 cases returned to the 1,000-mark, based on the recent data from the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7), a result of what experts noted as post-Holiday parties. /rcg
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