Cebu City Councilor Joel Garganera, the deputy chief implementor of the EOC in Cebu City.
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City will begin the year 2022 with only nine active cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
The Emergency Operations Center (EOC) has revealed that there is only one new case out of 233 tested individuals in December 31, the last day of 2021.
The nine active cases are made up of 8 positive results from real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests and one positive result from an antigen test. The city already counts positive antigen tests as active cases.
The daily positivity rate is currently at 0.43 percent and has remained below 1 percent since the start of December 2021.
Considering the threat of the Omicron variant that has recently entered the Philippines, Councilor Joel Garganera, the deputy chief implementor of the EOC, said the people could not be complacent with the current situation.
The councilor is worried about travelers arriving from Alert Level 3 areas such as National Capital Region (NCR) which will be raised to Alert Level 3 starting January 3, 2022.
“I will sit down with the Mayor and DOH — re travelers from areas under Level 3. When the typhoon struck, all hotels, quarantine facilities rely on crude oil. Good our cases are its lowest and there were flights diverted to other areas where they have power,” Garganera said.
“But right now, God forbid if our case will spike, all our prayers are on these linemen and cooperative weather so they will hit the 80 percent of Veco franchise area energized by January 10. Though all our quarantine hotels for Covid positives will automatically accommodate when the need arises. Just the same power is crucial,” said the councilor in a text message on January 1, 2022.
The councilor said there was an apparent need for quarantine facilities for these arriving travelers to prevent the entry of the Omicron variant in Cebu.
The city has enjoyed an all-time low number of active cases in the last weeks of 2021, which the EOC also attributed to the growing vaccinated population.
The City Health Department (CHD) earlier said that herd immunity has been achieved for the first dose with over 700,000 individuals already by end of 2021.
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