Cebu City remains COVID epicenter in Central Visayas

CEBU, Philippines — One more case of COVID-19 was confirmed in Cebu City yesterday, bringing to 23 the total number of cases in the city and to 36 the total in the entire province.

Cebu City remains the local government unit in Cebu and the entire Central Visayas with the most number of confirmed cases.

Governor Gwendolyn Garcia revealed the information in her daily reporting of the test results from Department of Health-7, which was streamed live via Sugbo News, the official news page of the Capitol Public Information Office.

The additional case was part of the 77 tests run by the national sub-laboratory inside Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu City.

Of the 77, 22 swabs were from Cebu province, 15 from Lapu-Lapu City, 37 from Cebu City, and 3 from Mandaue City.

As of yesterday, April 7, Cebu City Public Information Office reported 712 persons under monitoring who were cleared, leaving 92 active PUMs at the moment. Some 136 were also reported showing influenza-like illness (ILI).

No data yet from DOH-7 was available as of press time as to the number of recovered cases in Cebu or the breakdown of persons exhibiting severe acute respiratory infection and ILI.

Disinfections

The Cebu City Department of Public Services (DPS) continues to conduct massive disinfections on the streets in the fight against coronavirus as ordered by Mayor Edgardo Labella.

Attorney John Jigo Dacua, DPS head, said the disinfections are being conducted every dawn.

Some of the major areas disinfected are Carbon, Magallenas Street, Pelaez Street, Osmeña Boulevard, and the City Hall premises.

He said that according to the order of Labella, the disinfection will last until the city streets will be covered, including the ones in the mountain barangays.

As to availability of resources, Dacua said that since the city only has three water tankers, only two places are disinfected every day.

“Layo-layo pa gyud ta kay with the little resources that we have, di pa man daghan ang mga trucks, so kaga adlaw kay duha ra gyud. Dagko na major roads ang ato ma-serbisyohan, then after sa downtown, move up gyud ta sa mountain barangays,” said Dacua.

Dacua said that the disinfection has been conducted daily since the first week of March, only that the operations may not be visible as they are done at dawn to avoid public inconvenience.

But the DPS chief pointed out that disinfection alone is not the total solution to the elimination of the virus.

“Kaning COVID, dili ni gobyerno ra makasulbad ani. Kita tanan makasulbad. Dili lang sa COVID but tanan nga viruses nga nakapalibot sa ato. Kung kita magpadayon sa paghugaw-hugaw, kita tanan man affected, dili lang ang government,” said Dacua.

Dacua said they prioritized downtown areas as they are where people normally converge.

“Naay roads gibalik-balikan gyud nato, kaning ginadayo gyud sa mga tawo like Colon,” he added.

He said some barangays are also conducting their own disinfection initiatives, particularly those with tankers.  JMD (FREEMAN)