Garganera: No need for granular lockdowns in Cebu City

Placing parts of Cebu City under granular lockdown is not necessary for now, says EOC deputy chief implementer and Councilor Joel Garganera.

CEBU CITY, Philippines — There is no need to put any of Cebu City’s 80 barangays under granular lockdown as far as the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) is concerned.

Councilor Joel Garganera, the EOC’s deputy chief implementer, said that while the city continues to log triple digit numbers in its new cases of the coronavirus disease, its effort to contain the spread of the infection has remained “efficient.”

“Instead of a granular lockdown, atong gibuhat kay ang strikto nga pag (what we are doing is the strict) enforce sa (of) health protocols pinaagi sa atong (with the help of our) police, barangays, and Task Force Kasaligan,” said Garganera.

Garganera was reacting to a media report which placed Cebu City as among the areas in the country under granular lockdown along side Manila, Quezon, Pasig, Makati, Muntinlupa, Pasay, Mandaluyong, Malabon, and Navotas.

READ: Labella: No more lockdown in Cebu City

Granular lockdown was last implemented in some barangays including Guadalupe, Quiot, Labangon and Tisa during the last quarter of 2020 to prevent the spread of the infection in these areas.

Guadalupe officials also passed a resolution in January 2021 to order the implementation of a stay-at-home policy on Sundays.

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

But this is no longer the case now.

Garganera said that Cebu City may have been “wrongly” listed as among the areas under granular lockdown.

“Basin nasulod lang na sa ilang huna-huna tungod kay nisaka ang cases unya usahay mo number one pero wala naman gyod ta nag granular lockdown. There’s nothing wrong with it pero kita nasayod nga we can do a granular lockdown kung naay mga angay nga ilockdown pero so far wala man nato na nagamit,” said Garganera.

(Maybe they thought of such because of the number of cases here and we sometimes top the number of active cases but we no longer implemented granular lockdowns.  There is nothing wrong with (placing certain areas under granular lockdown) and we can always implement granular lockdown if needed but so far doing this has not been beneficial to us.)

Garganera said that the city’s COVID-19 situation remains under control.

Massive contact tracing, the extraction of those who are found positive of the infection, and the immediate isolation of their close contacts were proven enough to contain the transmission of the infection to other household members or the patient’s co-workers.

To date, Garganera said that they have not monitored cases of an entire sitio or barangay recording multiple cases of COVID-19 transmissions.

He said that the city’s barangay isolation facilities continue to have at least 60 unoccupied beds. But he still does not have the official count for the other facilities like the NOAH Complex, Cebu City Quarantine Center, and the accredited hotels here.

The city’s hospital utilization rate is also at 48 percent, a “fairly good condition for the city’s health care system.”

With this being the case, Garganera said that the city’s biggest challenge now is how to main the plateau in active cases or further bring down the number of cases while they continue to implement the vaccination rollout among the frontliners.

READ: Cebu hospitals start rolling out AstraZeneca vaccines

He said it will take another six months before the vaccines will finally reach the public.

While the city government continues to acquire more vaccine supplies, Garganera is asking city residents to remain vigilant and to continue to observe health protocols that include the wearing of face masks and face shields.

As of March 19, 2021, the city logged a total of 2,580 active COVID-19 cases. / dcb