MANILA – Cebu City is the new epicenter of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in the Philippines, Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Eduardo Año said yesterday.
Año said in an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel that the rate of COVID-19 infection in Cebu City has exceeded the rate of 17 local government units in Metro Manila.
“Cebu City is taking a lot of new cases. We are worried with the number of deaths also. That’s why we put up a task force in Cebu led by Secretary [Roy] Cimatu as directed by President Rodrigo Duterte,” Año said.
Año also said that government officials will be going to the city to look for more sites for isolation facilities as most of the infections in the community were due to positive patients staying at home.
“We can’t be sure if those patients are observing proper protocols of home quarantine. So better to extract them out of the community to ensure safety of the families and neighborhood,” he said.
“We’d also like to enjoin and ask the people to observe the health protocols. There are so many people violating the quarantine protocols, not wearing masks, not observing physical distancing,” he added.
National Task Force for COVID-19 chief implementer Carlito Galvez, for his part, said that Cebu City has geographical disadvantage since it only has seven level 3 hospitals that can accept COVID-19 patients.
“Tinututukan natin ngayon ang Cebu at ibang areas na nagkakaroon ng spikes ng kaso,” Galvez said during the Malacañang virtual press conference. “Ang nakita namin ay tumataas ang severe at critical cases, pati ang rate of death ay tumataas din.”
“We expect 2 to 3 weeks increase in Cebu City. Parang ganoon ang nakita nating surge of cases sa Metro Manila noong March to April. Noong nag-ECQ sila, hindi ito strictly implemented. Ngayon ang 19 barangays on strict lockdown,” he added./PN
