Cebu Province back to GCQ with heightened restrictions

CEBU, Philippines — The national Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) has granted Cebu Province’s appeal to de-escalate its quarantine status to general community quarantine (GCQ) from IATF's earlier recommendation of modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ).

The GCQ status, however, will have “heightened restrictions”.

“Cebu Province now under GCQ with heightened restrictions until Aug. 15,” IATF Visayas chief implementer, retired Gen. Mel Feliciano, told The Freeman, quoting presidential spokesperson Harry Roque.

IATF also released Resolution 130-D, which stipulates its decision to grant the province’s appeal.

Allowed

As stipulated in Resolution 130-D, food preparation establishments such as commissaries, restaurants, and eateries are allowed to operate provided they must implement a 20 percent seating capacity for indoor dine-in services and 50 percent on outdoor dine-in.

Personal care services such as beauty salons, beauty parlors, barbershops, and nail spas are allowed to operate at 30 percent of the venue or seating capacity.

Outdoor tourist attractions can continue to operate following guidelines from the Department of Tourism but must observe a 30 percent venue capacity.

 “Specialized markets of the DOT such as Staycations without age restrictions shall remain to be allowed at such capacities, protocols, and restrictions as may be imposed by the DOT,” the IATF said.

Religious activities or gathering are allowed but with 10 percent venue capacity only.

“Provided that, there is no objection from the local government unit where the religious gathering may take place. Provided, further, that the LGU may increase the allowable venue capacity up to thirty percent (30%). The religious denominations should strictly observe their submitted protocols and the minimum public health standards,” IATF said.

Necrological services, wakes, inurnment, and funerals for those who died of causes other than COVID-19 are allowed but limited only for immediate family members.

Interzonal travel is allowed also but subject to restrictions of the local government unit of destination.

“Point-to-Point travel to areas under General Community Quarantine and Modified General Community Quarantine shall be allowed without age restrictions subject to an RT-PCR test-before-travel requirement for those below eighteen years old (18) and above sixty-five (65), and other protocols and restrictions as may be imposed by the DOT and the Local Government Unit of destination,” the IATF said.

Not allowed

Indoor tourist attractions and indoor sports courts and venues are not allowed to operate.

Meetings, Incentives, Conventions, and Exhibitions (MICE) events and social events in venue establishments are also not allowed according to IATF Resolution No. 130-D.

Governor Gwendolyn Garcia said there will be no border control between the province and the highly urbanized cities of Cebu, Mandaue, and Lapu-Lapu City that have been placed under modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ).

Other LGUs

As of Sunday, August 1, the three HUCs have yet to receive a response from IATF.

“Huwat lang ta. Di nato sila dali-dalion. Basta kita diri, we remain aggressive in our efforts to stop the spread and in imposing the protocols under MECQ while there is no decision yet on our appeal,” Acting Mayor Michael Rama told The Freeman on Sunday.

He said whatever the decision of IATF will be on the appeal, the more important thing is for residents in the city to cooperate in bringing down the number of its active cases.

“Dili pwede nga kami ray maglihok. Kitang tanan dapat. Sunod lang ta’s protocol para di ta mag-problema,” he said.

Rama said the city is in constant communication with the Department of Health (DOH)-7 on the recruitment and augmentation of health care workers, especially nurses, for private hospitals. He said that while private hospitals have already agreed to expand their bed capacity for COVID-19, the same will be useless if there are no medical personnel to take care of patients.

Rama is also set to meet with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to clarify matters in the MECQ protocols for businesses and establishments.

“For one, tanan kaha kasabot unsa nang al fresco? Pila man gyud capacity? And a whole lot more… maayo nang klarohon nato tanan,” Rama said.

Other developments

Meanwhile, the IATF has also approved the shortening of detection to isolation/quarantine intervals to less than five days.

These include the conduct of active case finding in all areas, prioritizing those with clustering; the tracing of close contacts of suspect, probable, and confirmed cases within 24 hours of detection of a case; the immediate isolation /quarantine and testing of cases and close contacts; the use of rapid antigen tests for confirmation of suspect/probable case and close contacts; RT-PCR testing for those who turned negative on rapid antigen testing; identification of areas with case increases or clustering by the local government units (LGUs) and regional epidemiological surveillance units and their immediate submission of samples for sequencing.

Workplaces and establishments are also expected to conduct daily health and exposure screening, report identified case and close contacts to the LGU, and coordinate for investigation and response; and considering incentives in workplaces to encourage reporting and adherence to isolation/quarantine.

Also approved by the IATF is the implementation of giving priority to facility-based isolation and quarantine to prevent household transmission; making readily available and accessible health care capacities and systems in preparation for case spikes.

Priority Groups A2 and A3 populations are also being ramped up with parallel efforts of vaccinating the A4 population if resources are adequate. — Le Phyllis F. Antojado, JMO (FREEMAN)