701 cases in 14 days

CEBU, Philippines —  Cebu City recorded less than a thousand COVID-19 cases for 14 days from July 25 to August 6, 2020 and 24 of the city’s 80 barangays are now without cases.

This was announced on Friday by Councilor Joel Garganera, deputy chief implementer of the Emergency Operations Center in Cebu of the Inter-Agency Task Force, a day after Cebu City logged only 13 cases in a day on August 6.

Garganera said the multiple validations with barangay officials, health workers, and contact tracing teams showed the city logged only 701 cases from July 25 to August 6.

“I am happy with our test results for today (DOH’s Thursday night release), the lowest since May 15,” Garganera said during a virtual press briefer.

Based on data from the Department of Health (DOH) - 7, Cebu City still has 2,571 active cases but has 6,054 total recoveries.

With two more deaths logged on August 6, at least 537 have died from the disease.

Garganera said verification of records continues as the EOC found out that many patients were tagged as residents of Cebu City even as they are residents somewhere else. These patients reportedly use the address of their relatives in Cebu City to avail of free check-ups, swab tests, and isolation facilities, among others.

Not reason for complacency

There are no more additional areas under granular lockdowns in Cebu City, but only households at about 500.

But Garganera said the positive news the past two weeks should not be a reason to be complacent.

Cebu City transitioned back to general community quarantine on August 1 after over a month of strict restrictions under enhanced community quarantine and modified ECQ after a surge of cases in June.

For a while, the city was tagged as the epicenter of the pandemic in the Philippines, prompting the national government to send reinforcements like personnel of the Special Action Force, to implement quarantine rules.

“No time for complacency. Basta naa gihapon tay kaso (As long as we have cases), we can never be sure. We continue to practice our daily habit – wearing of mask, face shields, social distancing, and washing of hands,” Garganera said.

For his part, Mayor Edgardo Labella said it is but right to recognize the efforts and sacrifices of health workers as their intervention helped bring the number of cases down.

"Mao bitaw nga I'm conferring with our city officials nga kon mahimo, ang atong mga frontliners, matagaan nato og anti-flu shots ug anti-pneumonia shots kay sila gyud ang exposed kaayo," Labella said.

(I’m conferring with our city officials so that, as much as possible, we can give our frontliners anti-flu shots and anti-pneumonia shots because they are the ones who are very exposed.)

Quarantine pass

While he has observed that residents are now more compliant with protocols, Labella said the city will suspend the Sunday pass if compliance will not be sustained.

Labella recently issued an Executive Order allowing quarantine pass holders to go out on Sundays to buy basic necessities.

On weekdays, the number coding still applies wherein residents whose codes end with odd numbers (1, 3, 5, 7, 9) are allowed to go out on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays while those whose codes end with even numbers (2, 4, 6, 8, 0) can go out on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.

Authorized persons outside residence (APOR) are exempt from this policy. — JMO (FREEMAN)