Delta variant
CEBU CITY, Philippines – Lawmakers in Cebu slammed a member of the national government’s anti-COVID task force over his column recounting how they warned the province of threats of the more transmissible Delta variant.
In a joint statement, representatives from Cebu province’s seven districts and a party list group called out Dr. Edsel Salvana for his recently published column about Cebu and the Delta variant.
“We, the district and party list representatives of Cebu, join the Provincial Government of Cebu in admonishing, in no uncertain terms, the irresponsible and misplaced statement of Dr. Edsel Salvana that instigated unnecessary panic, anger, and fear among the Cebuanos in an already difficult situation,” portions of the statement reads.
It was signed by Representatives Eduardo Gullas (1st District), Wilfredo Caminero (2nd District), Pablo John Garcia (3rd District), Janice Salimbangon (4th District), Vincent Franco ‘Duke’ Frasco (5th District), Emmarie ‘Lolypop’ Ouano-Dizon (6th District), Peter John Calderon (7th District), and Sonny Lagon (AKO BISAYA Party list).
They referred to Salvana’s opinion piece as an “irresponsible and misplaced statement that undermined the COVID-19 response of Cebu.”
READ: IATF member challenged: Show data, don’t blame Cebu on Delta variant
“For some incomprehensible reason, Dr. Salvana directly attributed the large spike in cases and the spread of the Delta variant in Mindanao to the Provincial Government’s innovation relating to the entry of OFWs and ROFs while forgetting that the spread of the variant may very well be from local transmissions of persons originating from Metro Manila and other provinces of from loopholes in the IATF-MEID’s protocols,” the two-page document said.
“At a critical time when Cebu should hold a united front, we find no cogent reason why Dr. Salvana issued a statement that greatly undermined Cebu’s COVID-19 response efforts other than to cause a great divide and stir panic among the Cebuanos,” it added.
Salvana, an infectious disease specialist and member of the Technical Advisory Group of the IATF, earned the ire of Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia over his column for Manila Bulletin published last August 10.
Garcia publicly called out Salvana, and accused him of blaming Cebu as the cause of transmission of the Delta variant in parts of Mindanao that resulted in overwhelmed hospitals and rise in infections and mortalities related to COVID-19.
The doctor, however, clarified that he had no intentions in his column to point Cebu as the source of the spread.
READ: Dr. Salvaña: I am not blaming Cebu
Cebu has been experiencing continuous increase of COVID-19 cases, and even deaths, for the past weeks in what experts said the island-province’s ‘worst surge’ yet. / dcb