CEBU CITY, Philippines—The Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7) urged local governments to continue regulating and monitoring gatherings despite the easing of restrictions.
DOH-7 made this pronouncement as the campaign period for local elections started, and days after the first concert was held in Cebu City since the pandemic occurred.
“It is still the responsibility of our local government partners that they have the mandate to regulate these types of activities,” said Dr. Jaime Bernadas, director of DOH-7, in a press conference.
Bernadas also urged the public to continue observing minimum health standards, adding that Central Visayas still needs to catch up in its COVID-19 immunization coverage rate.
“We should not also be complacent on all these because we will really have problems when we don’t go back to our basic practices on minimum health standards,” he pointed out.
“Good if we can cover 85 percent of the population, then maybe we can relax a little. But for now, we really have to exercise due diligence and prudence among the candidates to adhere to the standards,” he added.
Based on recent data from DOH-7, the COVID-19 vaccination coverage rate in the region currently stands at 62.8 percent.
Central Visayas needs to inoculate roughly 5.6 million people in order to reach its goal of vaccinating 70 percent of its population.
Latest census shows that the region has a population of eight million.
/bmjo
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