High-rise buildings over Cebu City. CDN Digital photo | Brian J. Ochoa
CEBU CITY, Philippines – As the number of new COVID-19 cases continues to decline, Cebu City may downgrade its Alert Level 3 status soon.
Officials from the national government on Wednesday, February 2, 2022, expressed hope that the island province may transition to a more relaxed community quarantine status.
“I think so. Nakita naman natin na pababa yung kaso nang Cebu. It has the same trend with NCR (National Capital Region). And we are hoping makakaya natin. In the next few weeks. And we are hopeful makaya ng Cebu,” said Carlito Galvez Jr., chief implementer of the National Task Force Against COVID-19.
The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Disease in the Visayas (IATF-Visayas) also shared the same opinion with the NTF.
“The numbers are going down. Buot pasabot ana, the situation is going stable. The more stable it is, the lower ang quarantine status. So Level 3 ta karun, so hopefully in the coming days, kung mucontinue atong statistics run, the level of quarantine will be lowered,” said Retired Gen. Mel Feliciano, deputy chief implementer of IATF – Visayas.
Members of the national government’s anti-COVID task force were in Cebu City on Wednesday to attend the ceremonial launching of Resbakuna sa Botika.
The Resbakuna sa Botika, an initiative spearheaded by the Department of Health (DOH), allows pharmacies to administer booster shots to individuals aged 18 to 59 years old.
The IATF extended Cebu City’s Alert Level 3 until February 15.
Based on the latest COVID-19 bulletin from the DOH in Central Visayas (DOH-7), the city recorded 172 additional COVID-19 patients on February 1. Although it’s still a triple-digit count, it’s a drop compared to 994 made last January 20.
Active cases of the infection here still stood at 7,269.
/bmjo
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