EOC: Cebu City in a ‘better position to handle rise in new cases’

Parts of Cebu City are seen from the mountains of Barangay Busay in this photo taken on September 26, 2020. CDN Digital photo | Brian J. Ochoa

CEBU CITY, Philippines – For local officials here, the recent rise of new coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is not an alarming development.

But they continue to remind the public to continue observing minimum health standards and remain vigilant.

Councilor Joel Garganera, head of the city’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC), confirmed to reporters that they observed a slight increase in the number of new COVID-19 cases recently.

But Garganera said they have already anticipated this outcome and assured the public that the city government and healthcare industry are well-prepared for this.

“We, here in Cebu City EOC, are confident we can contain these cases… Is this alarming? No. We expected this but just the same, we have to be more vigilant,” said Garganera.

Data from the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7) showed that from December 29, 2020 to January 3, 2021, the city logged double-digits in the number of newly infected patients.

As of January 3, Cebu City is monitoring 167 active cases of the infection, which is higher compared to the 87 recorded during the second week of December in 2020.

Active cases refer to patients still infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19,

Citing findings from health experts in the EOC, Garganera said most of the additional cases they recorded in the past few days were from ‘outside transmission.’ This means that patients contracted the virus from outside their houses.

“As we’ve said, we are anticipating this because there were a lot of movements in December. It’s the Holiday season and we also allowed Misa de Gallo. This is expected,” explained Garganera.

The EOC czar also said that the city ‘is in a better position to handle a rise in the new cases’ than before, particularly last June when enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) was reimposed and that it is ready to respond to any possible surge due to the new variant of the virus.

“If Manila has to level up its containment measures in the next few days, the same manner goes here in Cebu,” said Garganera.

“We’re in a better position right now. Our isolation centers and hospitals have a total of 3,700 bed capacity (for COVID-19 patients) and right now, we only have around a little over 100 being isolated both in the facilities and hospitals,” he added.

/bmjo

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