Central Visayas, except 2 cities still under GCQ, DOH clarifies

MANILA, Philippines —The Department of Health (DOH) dismissed social media posts that it had placed the entire Central Visayas region, including the province of Cebu under the more stringent enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) status and stressed that it does not have the authority to do so amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

“Region 7 or the province of Cebu is still under GCQ, except for Cebu City, which is under ECQ and Talisay City, which is under modified ECQ,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in an online media forum.

“We do not have any authority para makapagbigay ng ganitong impormasyon [to disseminate information like this]. It is only the InterAgency Task Force and Spokesperson Harry Roque who can provide the general public with this kind of information,” she added.

Vergeire said the report, quoting her supposedly in an interview, claimed that the DOH has announced that Region 7 or the entire province of Cebu is now under ECQ— the government’s most stringent classification of a community quarantine.

“Wala pong katotohanan ang nasabing ito,” Vergeire said.

(There is no truth to that.)

The rest of the country is either under MGCQ or GCQ—the two most relaxed classifications of the government’s community quarantine measures—until June 30 except for Cebu City and Talisay City which are both under stricter quarantine measures due to sudden spike in COVID-19 cases.

Currently, there are 27,799 COVID-19 cases nationwide, including 7,090 recoveries and 1,116 deaths.

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