Close to 1,500 LSIs cleared to go home

CEBU, Philippines — At least 1,443 locally stranded individuals in Cebu City have been allowed to go to their respective hometowns.

Councilor Joel Garganera, deputy chief implementer of Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in the city, said the latest count of outbound passengers, including those from the province, is from August 2 to 5.

"Gamay pa gyud," said Garganera.

An estimated 18,000 LSIs are expected to go back to their hometowns now that the city is under general community quarantine (GCQ) status until August 15. Cebu City was placed under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) from June 16 to July 15 and modified ECQ from July 15 to 31 where travels are restricted except for some authorized persons.

On the other hand, at least 434 LSIs have entered through the ports of Cebu City. Garganera expressed concern over the expected influx of inbound passengers now that the quarantine status of Cebu City has been downgraded.

"According to World Health Organization, when there is a downgrading of a quarantine status, within two weeks cases will rise. These are statistics from the World Health Organization. Mao ni ang akong greatest fear ba because everything is so fragile. The fact that everything is going in a direction nga maayo kaayo ba," Garganera said.

"Kuyawan kaayo ko. But then again, we have to co-exist with the virus. Dili man sad maayo nga pirmaninte lang ta nga gi-control ba. At the end of the day, we have to take care of ourselves. Disiplina gyud and then so far okay pa ang atong mga results," he added.

The figures released by the Department of Health, however, were encouraging. On August 5, the city only logged 25 additional COVID-19 cases bringing the total number of cases to 9,150 of which 2,623 are active cases. There are now a total of 5,992 recoveries and 535 deaths.

According to Garganera, their goal is to achieve modified GCQ after August 15.

"In fact, our goal is wala na tay quarantine status but it entirely depend on all of us because the government for that matter cannot give you that. It should be everyone of us. That's our responsibility. The police did their part, the government did their part, we did our part. Kita gyud tanan. We should be one on this," said Garganera.

"I just hope and pray nga ang disiplina sa atong mga tawo magpirmaninte gihapon," he added. — FPL (FREEMAN)