Cebu City EOC not inclined in adopting yet new IATF reso lowering age limit

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CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City Emergency Operations Center (EOC), the city’s dedicated anti-coronavirus committee, is not keen on adopting a new resolution that lowered the age limit of people allowed to go outside of their houses.

EOC head and Councilor Joel Garganera made this statement on Friday, January 22, or hours after the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID) announced that people ages 10 to 65 years old will be permitted in public places in areas under modified general community quarantine (MGCQ).

Garganera said immediately adopting the new rule would be untimely with the city still experiencing a new surge of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases.

“I believe implementing this is untimely… We in the EOC, we strongly oppose for its immediate implementation considering the situation we are in,” said Garganera in Cebuano.

On Friday, the Malacañang announced that it has eased age restrictions in areas under modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) as it allowed persons aged 10 to 65 years old to step out of their homes by February 1, 2021.

Under the previous policy of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, only individuals aged 15 to 65 years old are allowed outside.

But for the city’s EOC, having more people permitted to be in public places posed as a risk for the virus to rapidly spread.

“In the meantime, we are not inclined in adopting it. Let us also be sensitive in the condition we are right now. We will entertain (that new resolution) soon but first, let’s address the rising cases,” explained Garganera.

The Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7), for their part, urged parents not to abuse the new rule and added that they should teach their children to observe minimum health standards.

“It is also very good that at a very young age our children will be taught how to follow protocols to become responsible because they are our future,” said Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, spokesperson of DOH-7, in a separate interview.

Cebu City has been placed under MGCQ since September in 2020.

Its number of active COVID-19 cases as of January 21 has jumped back to 702 after it logged 60 additional new confirmed patients on that day.

The city has been consistently logging double-digit figures in the number of new COVID-19 cases since January 1, 2021. /dbs

RELATED STORY: Still rising, COVID-19 active cases in Cebu City nears 700