Police Lieutenant Colonel Wilbert Parilla, CCPO deputy director for operations, says they have not effected a lockdown in Barangay Guadalupe. | Screengrab from Pegeen Maisie Sararana video
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Police personnel and barangay tanods are being deployed in a sitio in Barangay Guadalupe, Cebu City that had been put under intensified monitoring due to the rising cases of COVID-19 infections there.
Police Lieutenant Colonel Wilbert Parilla, the deputy director for operations of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) revealed this to reporters on Wednesday, July 21, 2021.
Parilla said the deployment of police and barangay tanods in Sitio Kalubihan is designed to prevent close contacts of COVID-19 positive individuals from going outside their houses.
Parilla said that most of the cases noted in the said sitio allegedly started from the boss of a workplace who also infected the workers.
“Kaning pinakadaghan, ang unag nag-positive is iyahang amo, unya na spread sa iyahang mga trabahante. So mao na siya among gikoan kon dis-a siya nagsuroy-suroy nganong nag-positive. Ato sad na i-trace,” he said.
Parilla clarified that all positive individuals in Barangay Guadalupe were already extracted and brought to isolation facilities.
“Ang kaning gibantayan ron, dili ni mao ang mga positive cases, kato raning close contacts. Naa tay police ug tanod nga maoy nagbantay,” said Parilla.
He said that they have not yet come to the point of implementing a lockdown in the barangay considering that they have no problem with the extraction of positive individuals yet.
“…not totally gi-lockdown sila but to make it sure nga dili sila magpataka og lakaw-lakaw. Isolated ra sila sa ilahang panimalay. Duna nata’y tanod nga gibutang, ug police nga nag-supervise sa mga tanod,” he added.
Parilla said they have at least five contact tracing teams manning the sitio composed of the police, Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), Armed Forces of the Philippines(AFP) personnel, as well as doctors and nurses.
Despite the increasing number of cases, Parilla believes that they have effectively contained the spread of the virus since the majority of those being monitored are close contacts of previously reported positive individuals.
On July 19, Guadalupe recorded 12 new COVID-19 cases, bringing its total number of infections to 116.
Cebu City, on the other hand, has 1,581 active cases, with 181 new COVID-19 cases recorded on Tuesday, July 20, 2021. /rcg