Senator: City classes likely to be postponed

CEBU, Philippines — With the still rising number of coronavirus cases in Cebu City, the postponement of classes next month is not farfetched.

Senator Sherwin “Win” Gatchalian said the postponement of the opening of classes is possible in areas that are still having high infection rates.

He said even distance or remote learning is not possible in highly-infected areas.

“For example here in Cebu (City), if the situation will remain like this, may possibility even distance learning will be postponed. Kasi you have to remember yung self-learning module, eto yung module na ibibigay sa bata, idedeliver yan house to house. And that will expose our teachers as well expose our parents sa possibility of infection,” he explained.

Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate Committee on Basic Education, Arts and Culture, said classes are set to start on August 24, 2020 but no face-to-face will be conducted.

Instead, it will be solely distance learning in which self-learning modules will be delivered to the homes of the children.

“This will be implemented nationwide, so ibig sabihin kahit walang COVID infection in that area but because of the high risk, distance learning ang i-implement natin,” said Gatchalian.

“Ngayon kung yung lugar talaga grabe yung infection, even that pick-up and delivery ng self-learning module will become a problem,” he said.

Gatchalian said they will recommend to postpone the opening of classes in some areas to a further date if they see that these areas cannot really deliver the distance learning.

“Mas mahirap maiwanan tayo lahat eh. May mga lugar na nag-iimprove yung situation, for example in Region 2 and Region 3, ang improvement dun napakabilis. In other words, dun sa mga lugar na low risk pwede naman ituloy itong distance learning,” said Gatchalian.

“Ang situation nitong COVID talagang napakahirap masabi, very unpredictable,” he added.

Meanwhile, Mayor Edgardo Labella hopes that the city’s status will be downgraded to the more relaxed general community quarantine from enhanced community quarantine after July 15.

“After all if you look at the statistics, Cebu City has the highest number of recovery. If you base on the recovery rate, we have the highest number. That is something that should be seriously considered,” said Labella.

Labella believes that the city has done enough in addressing the pandemic.

“If we have not done enough, we would not have that high rate of recovery,” he said.

Based on the DOH-7 Official Facebook Page, as of July 13, 2020, the total confirmed cases in Central Visayas is at 12,327.

Of this number, 7,520 cases are from Cebu City, with 3,338 active cases and 3,818 recoveries. The total number of deaths, on the other hand, is 364.  KQD (FREEMAN)