A view of Cebu City from the mountains of Barangay Busay. CDN Digital photo | Brian J. Ochoa
CEBU CITY, Philippines — As Cebu City reopens its economy by removing major COVID-19 restrictions, the city is seeing more improvements in its COVID-19 situation.
In the latest data of the Emergency Operations Center (EOC), the city only recorded only 14 COVID-19 cases further reducing the active cases to less than 400 cases.
The hospital occupancy rate has remained at 24 percent for both public and private hospitals, which means that fewer people are getting hospitalized for COVID-19.
The deaths in February reached 51, but this is still fewer than the 83 deaths recorded in January 2022, during the peak of the Omicron-driven surge.
With the easing of the restrictions, Councilor Joel Garganera, the deputy chief implementor of the EOC, urge the public to be responsible and vigilant of their behaviors.
“Well it is in the EO 163 that as we eases some restrictions from curfew to vaccination status it is still a must for us to be compliant with the basic health protocols like the proper wearing of mask, social distancing, always to have clean hands all the time in other words kaning tanan mahimo naning muscle memory nato. Ug ato ning matuman wala tay angay kabalak-an kay luwas gyud ta taliwala ning hulga sa pandemya,” he said.
The councilor said that even if everyone can now go out regardless of vaccination status, both vaccinated and unvaccinated must be compliant with the health protocols because they are still susceptible to the COVID-19
The warning is given especially to those who refused to get vaccinated because they are more susceptible to getting the severe form of the COVID-19.
The EOC continues to advocate for vaccination as the long-term solution to the pandemic.
Vaccination of minors
The Cebu City Health revealed that the city has fully vaccinated nearly a million individuals
At least 802,104 out of the 1,083,443 registered individuals have already received both doses of the vaccines, ensuring that the city has reached herd immunity.
For adolescents aged 12 to 17 years old, at least 87,802 have already been vaccinated out of the near 100,000 registrants. Vaccinations for adolescents continue to this day.
Finally, for children aged 5 to 11 years old, 3,680 already got their first dose of the vaccine and they are set to get the second dose in two weeks.
Adults have also been getting booster shots with at least 119,684 individuals registered for booster and 92,064 getting the jab as the city moves away from the fear of the pandemic to a new normal set-up. /rcg
READ:
Cebu City removes major COVID-19 restrictions