CEBU, Philippines — Cebu City has surpassed the 500-mark of active cases in COVID-19 at 552, the most number of active cases in over four months.
The city’s active cases ballooned after posting 61 new cases last January 15, the highest in a day breaking the 59 cases last November 14, 2020.
The new cases are from 26 barangays including Apas, Bacayan, Basak, Pardo, Basak San Nicolas, Cogon Pardo, Guadalupe, Inayawan, Kalunasan, Kasambagan, Kinasang-an, Labangon, Lahug, Lusaran, Mabolo, Pardo, Pasil, Pit-os, Pahina Central, Punta Princesa, Quiot, San Antonio, San Nicolas Proper, Pahina San Nicolas, Sto.Nino, Talamban and Tisa.
The line list given by the Emergency Operations Center is up for verification for all the concerned barangays.
The city’s EOC has already met with the different barangays especially the top 13 to stop the spread of COVID-19.
EOC’s deputy chief implementer, Councilor Joel Garganera, said they have already anticipated this to spike up due to the movements during Christmas season.
Even as cases are above 500 at the moment, Garganera said the city is in a better position now as far as addressing the problems with Covid-19 is concerned compared to six months ago.
“With this surge, we are in a better position to address this compared to where we are last 7-6 months ago,” said Garganera.
The city, according to Garganera, already had the logistics in place, infrastructure and experience to control the spread.
“Last December, our Mayor suspended some of the restrictions with the end view that people will practice self-discipline to pave way for the new normal. Our Mayor has been very mindful that it is not a question of choosing lives over livelihood but they should co-exist in order for us to survive this pandemic. As it turned out we are far from it. Now we’re experiencing the fruit of all those movements in unregulated gatherings,” said Garganera.
Although saying they are in a better position, Garganera said the EOC along with the police and all clustered groups will not allow this to go on, thus strict enforcement of all these health protocols has to be done again.
DOH data
Lapu-Lapu City, on the other hand, currently has 90 active cases including seven new ones and Mandaue City with 100 including eight new cases.
For the provinces in Central Visayas, Negros Oriental remains the highest at 620 active cases per Department of Health 7 data while Cebu Province has 297 including 45 new ones while Bohol has nine remaining cases and Siquijor with two.
The DOH said that various health experts commended the biosurveillance and border control efforts of the government for detecting the presence of the UK variant in the country.
DOH said that health experts have emphasized that early detection is key in mitigating the spread of the disease.
Inspite of the presence of the UK variant in the Philippines, DOH has reiterated that regardless of the variant, the minimum public health standards remain to be the best strategy to prevent infection.
Vaccine
DOH-7 spokesperson, Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, on the other hand, said that there is no scientific data that will connect the current vaccine materials to that of an aborted fetus.
“We will expect a lot more of this kind of claims as we are nearing the vaccination period,” Loreche told The Freeman.
Loreche instead urged the public to review all scientific data and listen to the experts.
She added that according to the manufacturers that the vaccines that are going to be out in the market are capable of addressing variants now and therefore will still be effective. — Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon, GMR (FREEMAN)