Cebu City Councilor Joel Garganera, the deputy chief implementor of the EOC.
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City government will not be putting its guard down amid the plans of the national government to keep the city under Modified General Community Quarantine (MGCQ) even when its neighboring cities of Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu will be placed on a higher status.
Councilor Joel Garganera, deputy chief implementor of the Emergency Operations Center (EOC), said that the city government could not ease out of the restriction regardless of the quarantine status as the cases were simply rising.
The city will continue to uphold restrictions including the liquor ban, longer curfew hours, and no convergence policies in the parks.
“Regardless of the quarantine status, ang amoa diri sa Cebu City, aggressive gyod mi when it comes to our EOC intervention, extraction, intervention,” said Garganera.
(Regardless of the quarantine status, what we do here in Cebu City is we are aggressive when it comes to our EOC intervention, extraction, intervention.)
The city currently has five barangay isolation centers (BICs) open with 200 additional buffer beds and will open another three for an additional 400-bed capacity.
Garganera said that the Cebu City Sports Complex (CCSC) would also provide another 250 beds soon thereby reducing the congestion in the hospitals.
With the recent pronouncement of the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7) that the Delta variant has been detected in the region, the EOC said it had long been operating as if the new variant had already been here.
“Nangandam ta kay we are mindful sa kahimtang. For the last one month hugot kaayo ta. Even if we are MGCQ, we also (are) very strict,” said Garganera.
(We have been preparing because we are mindful of the situation. For the last month, we have been very strict. Even if we are MGCQ, we also are very strict.)
The strict measures will continue on until the next month in cooperation with the other stakeholders including the barangays, church, and establishments.
The city will open two holding sites for violators as strict implementation and intensified apprehensions of violators will be implemented starting tomorrow.
For now, the biggest challenge of the city is to reduce the pressure from the hospitals.
Recently, Councilor David Tumulak revealed that a COVID-19 patient, an asthmatic 28-year-old call center agent, died on July 14, 2021, in the ambulance because no hospital could cater to her and the medics could not intubate her in the ambulance.
The hospitalization rate averages at 60 percent now and the city government and the DOH-7 are working to hire more nurses to man the COVID-19 dedicated wards.
Garganera appeals to the public to be more vigilant and to maintain the health protocols even when at home so that transmission can be reduced.
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