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CEBU CITY, Philippines – Despite reviving stricter quarantine restrictions, Cebu City will not implement a city-wide shutdown, local officials said.
“We don’t want any blockade… It brought difficulties to our family and economy. When the records indicated that (coronavirus cases increased), we needed a wake-up call, ”Councilman Joel Garganera said during a press conference on Monday, November 16.
Garganera, who heads the city’s EOC, clarified that the city government had been making “small or granular closures” in areas where transmission of the virus had been confirmed to contain its spread.
“Every day we make small closings in houses and establishments where there are positive patients. That is standard operating procedure, ”he said.
To recall, the EOC previously issued a warning that closures in Cebu City could return if the number of new COVID-19 cases increased.
RELATED STORY: EOC warns lockdown if upward trend in COVID-19 cases continues
For six consecutive days, data from the Central Visayas Department of Health (DOH-7) showed that the city had been recording double-digit numbers in its number of new coronavirus patients.
The trend of recording more additional confirmed cases than recoveries also alarmed not only local officials but national ones as well.
RELATED STORY: 140 new cases in Cebu City in 1 week
Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu, who leads the Interagency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID) in the Visayas, was also in town on Monday to discuss the matter.
For his part, Cimatu admitted that he was alarmed by the news that COVID-19 cases in Cebu City had increased even slightly.
“(Was it alarming?) Yes. That is why we had to address the cause of the spike. We have to find out what caused it and what actions we should take, ”Cimatu said.
As of November 15, the DOH-7 COVID-19 bulletin showed that the number of active COVID-19 cases in the city rose again to 292 from 159 just a week ago.
Garganera also said that health experts at the city’s dedicated COVID command center recorded an increase in the positivity rate from Cebu City.
Shortly before Cimatu’s visit, the city government, led by Mayor Edgardo Labella, decided to re-implement stricter health protocols.
These included stricter border controls in which non-essential travel to Cebu City is not allowed, and reviving the number coding scheme among quarantine pass holders.
RELATED STORY: Labella Closes Cebu City Borders For Non-Essential Entries, Q-Pass Encryption Returns Nov 16
Meanwhile, Labella assured that the city’s coronavirus outbreak is still under manageable levels and that local officials, through the EOC, are doing everything they can to contain it.
“Relatively, it is not as worse as in other places. It’s still manageable as far as the city is concerned, ”he said.
RELATED STORY: Parties, meetings between the main sources of new COVID infections
Cebu City has been placed under Modified General Community Quarantine (MGCQ) since September and will last until November 30, 2020.
However, it can be recalled that the city was the only area in the country to revert to enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), the strictest form of community quarantine, last June due to a surge in new COVID-19 cases.
It was also previously labeled as the epicenter of the virus outbreak in Central Visayas. / dbs
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