For granular lockdown in Cebu City: List known today

CEBU, Philippines —  A list of areas in Cebu City that will be placed under granular or segmented lockdown is expected to be released today as barangay captains meet with the city government to discuss the details of the scheme.

A granular lockdown means restriction is limited to a specific area like a household or several houses, a street, or a compound where residents were exposed to an individual with COVID-19.

The city government continues to reconcile data on COVID-19 cases from its departments and testing laboratories.

Councilor Joel Garganera, deputy chief implementer in Cebu City for the IATF Cebu Emergency Operations Center, said they will pick the areas based on the number of active cases from July 9 to 22, 2020. 

Based on data from the Department of Health (DOH) as of July 23, Cebu City has 3,256 active cases. Of these, 1,165 are in the hospital while the rest are in isolation.

Garganera said the initial list of areas for granular lockdown has been forwarded to the barangay captains for verification. Residents who will be affected will be provided with relief goods.

Let people work

Garganera said the city needs to contain and arrest the spread of COVID-19 but it cannot afford to be locking down the whole city further.

Cebu City is under modified enhanced community quarantine but has been under ECQ largely since March this year. Secretary Roy Cimatu, IATF’s chief implementer in Cebu, said earlier he is optimistic the city can transition to general community quarantine by August.

Cimatu has said the granular or segmental lockdown is meant to enable restrictions to be in place without having to paralyze the whole barangay and so that residents can go back to work.

“Yung sa lockdown, it should be kung saan ang epicenter ng barangay. Dun ang lockdown doon so that hindi ma-affected ang mga sitios na wala namang cases. So, instead na mag-lockdown sa buong barangay, yun na lang mga sitios or purok… yun din ang pinaplano namin so that yung mga workers magtatrabaho,” Cimatu said.

(On lockdowns, it should be the epicenter in the barangay. That’s what should be locked down so that other sitios without cases won’t be affected. Instead of locking down an entire barangay, we can just lock down a sitio or purok… that’s what we’re planning so that those who need to work won’t have problems.)

Data Reconciling

Meanwhile, Garganera said it took the city some time to implement the granular lockdown because they will have to reconcile the addresses of those who were found COVID-19 positive.

Early this month, Barangay Guadalupe Captain Michael Gacasan revealed to The Freeman that close to 50 patients recorded under Guadalupe were actually residents of another barangay.

Gacasan said other barangays have also experienced a similar situation.

Last July 6,the Cebu City Health Department issued a statement saying it will no longer post daily reports of COVID-19 cases to avoid confusion until data will be harmonized with those from other health offices, including DOH.  JMO (FREEMAN)