Cebu, Mandaue, Lapu-Lapu seek extended ECQ to complete mass testing

CEBU CITY – The mayors of the cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu have called on the national government to extend the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) in the three towns until they complete their mass tests.

In a joint statement released Tuesday night, Mayors Edgardo Labella of Cebu City, Jonas Cortes of Mandaue City and Junard Chan of Lapu-Lapu City said they formally requested the Inter-Agency Task Force on Infectious Diseases. Emerging (IATF-EID) continually enforce ECQ in all three cities.

“The most effective way to flatten the curve is to test, plot and treat. We are still in the early stages of testing and tracing, and we maintain our position from day one that until and unless our components are evaluated, we should not ease the restrictions, “they said.

On Tuesday morning, Malacañang announced that the cities of Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu could move from ECQ to General Community Quarantine (GCQ) as of May 16, as they were among the “moderate risk” areas for the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

However, Cebu City will be under the “modified” ECQ from May 16 to 31, joining Metro Manila and Laguna, which are considered “high risk” areas for COVID-19.

While Cortés and Chan welcomed the decision to place the cities of Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu under GCQ, they said that they could not simply ignore the reality that it is still not safe to proceed with the GCQ since a large portion of the two cities not tested for COVID-19.

On May 6, the cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu began strategic and calibrated tests of at least 10 percent of their population.

The objective was simply to obtain a clearer picture of the actual prevalence of COVID-19 in their respective jurisdictions to develop protocols that would ensure that the possibility of a second wave of infections would be minimal, if not entirely avoided.

“Changing to the GCQ would be easier for the government. However, our moral obligation implies that we have to make the difficult decisions to ensure that the majority of our voters remain healthy and free of COVIDOS, ”said Labella, Cortés and Chan.

“We understand the clamor of the people to ease the restrictions, since this would mean an appearance of normality. But it would not be logical considering that, according to the initial estimate, approximately 90 percent of the cases in our region are asymptomatic. Similarly, we understand the importance of starting the economy, but this should not be done at the expense of the health and safety of our people. We cannot look our constituents in the eye and guarantee that it would be safe for them to come out, ”they added.

The three mayors appealed to their constituents to take the test, as this is the way to assess the entire situation.

“The end in sight is on the horizon. We just wanted to make sure that it would be safe for our people once we are ready to migrate to GCQ, ”they said.

“We hope that the national IATF-EID will accept our appeal, as we have nothing but the best interest of our people in mind,” they added.

The Governor of Cebu, Gwendolyn García, for his part, supported the decision to move the province of Cebu from ECQ to GCQ.

Despite the move to GCQ, he said that strict border control with Cebu City would still apply given the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the Ciudad Reina del Sur.

Data from the Department of Health showed that the entire island of Cebu has 1,930 cases of COVID-19 between May 12 and 1,695 in Cebu city, 111 in Mandaue city, 48 in Lapu-Lapu city, and 54 in the province of Cebu.

Eighteen Filipino workers abroad who recently arrived in Cebu, as well as four health workers also tested positive for COVID-19.

The health department does not indicate the town or city where these OFW and health workers were from, therefore they were placed in a different category.

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