A photo taken during the deployment of police personnel of Labangon Police Station to check if the areas within their jurisdiction follow the curfew. | Contributed file photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Whether local governments in Cebu would scrap curfew remains a question.
Officials here have yet to make their respective decisions on the existing curfew policies as Metro Manila, the country’s capital, has already dropped it.
But for the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7), they advised local officials to closely monitor their locality’s COVID-19 immunization coverage rate before making any steps.
“We leave it up to the local government units (LGUs) and national government in terms of deciding,” said Dr. Van Phillip Baton, DOH-7 medical officer, during a virtual briefer on Thursday.
“But again, looking up with the COVID vaccination rate that we have, I think we still have a lot of things to do for us to reach the same level as NCR (National Capital Region),” he added.
DOH-7 pointed out Metro Manila’s high vaccination coverage rate as one of the reasons why LGUs there decided to ease several restrictions, including curfew.
“In terms of lifting and easing up restrictions, it really would depend on the COVID-19 situation. Manila has seen easing up its COVID situation so it’s high time that they would ease up their COVID restrictions,” Baton said.
Curfew remains all over Cebu, albeit hours vary from one locality to another.
In the capital Cebu City, Acting Mayor Michael Rama said the city government might likely announce their decision by November 5.
Rama told reporters in a phone interview on Thursday that they would be conducting a meeting among concerned sectors to discuss, among others, curfew.
But the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) and the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) wanted to keep such restrictions to maintain peace and order and the low number of daily infections respectively.
Curfew in Cebu City currently runs from 11:30 p.m. up to 4 a.m. the next day.
For Cebu province, Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia said she would have to consult first mayors of municipalities and components cities in the province about curfew.
In the province, curfew starts from 12 midnight to 4 a.m. the next day.
Vaccination Statistics
The entire island of Cebu has a population of 5.1 million, according to the 2020 census.
The government is targeting to administer two shots of COVID-19 vaccines to approximately 3.6 million individuals in the island-province to achieve herd immunity.
But based on the recent data from the Visayas Vaccination Operations Center (VVOC), only around 33 percent has been fully vaccinated as of November 2.
This meant that out of the estimated 3.6 million individuals in the island-province qualified to receive free vaccines, only 1.2 million managed to complete their inoculation schedule.
Metro Manila, on the other hand, has already achieved COVID-19 immunization coverage rate of 96 percent for the 1st dose, and 80 percent for the 2nd dose. / with reports from INQUIRER.net
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