This is the view of Cebu City from Chalet Hills in Barangay Busay, Cebu City. CDND PHOTO / Cris Evert Lato-Ruffolo
CEBU CITY, Philippines- The Emergency Operations Center (EOC) of Cebu City is hopeful that the city will transition to a more relaxed community quarantine status by October.
“With September nearing its end, it is more likely that we can have a change of quarantine status. We are looking at that (Modified General Community Quarantine),” said Councilor Joel Garganera, head of the city’s EOC.
On Monday, September 20, the EOC reported that Cebu City was able to maintain a downward trend in the number of new COVID-19 cases as well as in terms of critical care utilization rate.
Based on the COVID-19 tracker of the Department of Health (DOH), as of September 20, the hospital occupancy rate in Cebu City is at 46.4 percent.
The tracker further showed that only one hospital in the city remained under critical levels while 14 others were already in the “safe zone.”
Garganera also said positivity rate, or the percentage of individuals that tested positive of COVID-19 every day, dropped below 10 percent, and active cases further eased down to 1,239 as of September 19.
While expressing optimism over Cebu City’s future quarantine status, the EOC chief said the city still needs more effort in scaling up its immunization rate, leading him to reiterate calls for residents to already get their jabs.
“But that (does not signify) for us to be complacent. COVID is still very much around… And in order for our efforts to bear fruit, we have to get vaccinated. We’re still far from reaching our target,” Garganera explained.
He cited brand preference as one of the primary factors as to why the city lagged in its immunization drive against COVID-19.
“We have enough vaccine. We cannot see any other reasons to justify why some still do not want to get vaccinated. It’s just disappointing that some of us would choose a brand,” Garganera said in Cebuano.
Data from the Visayas Vaccination Operations Center (VVOC), the city was able to administer a total of 580,866 doses of COVID-19 vaccines as of September 20.
Of this number, 330,523 were 1st doses while the remaining 250,343 were 2nd doses.
This means that the immunization rate of Cebu City, with a population of over 940,000, is approximately at 49 percent for the partially vaccinated and 37 percent for the fully vaccinated individuals.
Cebu City is currently under General Community Quarantine (GCQ) until September 30. To recall, it shifted a stricter Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ) last August due to a spike in infections.
RELATED STORIES
Cebu City’s daily COVID-19 positivity rate drops to 6.5%
Cebu City welcomes DILG probe on ‘no vaccine no dine-in’ policy
/ dcb