More cops, soldiers, health workers to enforce Cebu City lockdown — Año

MANILA, Philippines — More police officers, soldiers, and health workers will be deployed in Cebu City to augment the implementation of a lockdown there,  Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año said Wednesday.

“Under ECQ  (enhanced community quarantine) iyan (Cebu City) at magdadagdag pa tayo ng pulis dito pati kagawad ng armed forces kasi nakita natin na kailangan i-quarantine mga tao sa kani-kanilang bahay kasi malaki ang numero nasa 4,000 ang active cases natin dito at patuloy pang tumataas,” Año, vice chairman of government’s coronavirus disease (COVID-19) task force, said over Teleradyo when asked about the lockdown enforcement in Cebu City.

(Cebu City is under ECQ and we will provide more police officers and members of armed forces because we see a need for residents to observe home quarantine in their houses because the number of cases there is already huge with 4,000 active cases and it is already increasing.)

For health workers, Año said they will field more doctors and nurses to Cebu City hospitals as the number of COVID-19 patients continues to outnumber medical workers in the city.

“Magaling mga doctor natin dito (Cebu) pero dapat tulungan natin sila nalulunod e sobrang dami ng pasyente,” Año said.

(Doctors in Cebu are hard workers but we have to help them because there are so many patients in the city.)

Año also noted that the Department of Health and local government units will help in hiring or assigning more health workers in Cebu City.

To recall, Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella suspended all quarantine passes in the city to stop the surge of COVID-19 cases.

As of June 23, Cebu City has 4,479 COVID-19 patients and 89 deaths because of the disease.

/MUF