Cebu City prepares for possible use of mass burial site

Cebu City Councilor Joel Garganera, city’s Emergency Operation’s Center head, says the city is anticipating the possibility of having a mass burial for COVID-19 deaths and they are considering burial areas for this possibility. |CDN Digital file photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City is preparing probably for the worse — a mass burial site for COVID-19 fatalities.

Councilor Joel Garganera, head of the city’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC), said they were already anticipating for the possibility of having mass burial for deaths related to COVID-19. 

Garganera admitted that figures pertaining to mortalities linked to the infection were increasing. 

In the event that this will reach alarming levels, he said they were considering to look for a property to be used as a mass grave. 

“That is also bound to happen (need for mass burial) if the mortality (rates) that we’re experiencing happens in a daily basis. That is not something nga dili mahitabo. Mahitabo na (that will happen. It will happen),” said Garganera in a briefer on Monday, August 9. 

The councilor said they were looking at a city-owned property in the hinterland village of Adlaon as possible site for the mass grave. 

The city is also planning to turn one of its properties in Barangay Babag, also a mountain barangay, into a cemetery to bury the recently deceased.

In addition, Garganera confirmed that the city government had made a request before the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) to help them purchase more body bags. 

“We have to do everything just to make sure the bodies will be buried immediately,” he added. 

Within a span of one week, data from the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7) from August 1 to August 8, COVID-related deaths in Cebu City have already reached a total of 65. 

The EOC also said that they had noted an increase in home-deaths, and that they would be conducting an investigation to determine if these were linked to the viral infection. 

Cebu City has been experiencing a continuous spike in new COVID-19 cases, which health experts here attributed to the presence and detection of the highly transmissible Delta variant.

The city is currently placed under a stricter modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) status.

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