Cebu City sees drop in COVID-19 cases

CEBU CITY, Cebu, Philippines — Cases of COVID-19 in this city have declined in the past few days as the local government continues to implement strict restrictions under the modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ).

Councilor Joel Garganera, deputy chief implementer of the city’s Emergency Operations Center, said the situation in the city’s hospitals had also improved following the decline in cases.

“The fruits of our labor are now showing. New infections are declining,” he said, citing the strict implementation of health protocols in the city.

At the start of August, Cebu City recorded between 300 and 400 new COVID-19 cases daily.

In the past few days, the cases dropped to between 100 and 200.

Funeral homes full

The deaths due to COVID-19 have also declined in the past few days from more than 20 to less than 10 people.

Garganera said the funeral homes and mortuaries, however, remained full but they were expecting the numbers to also go down.

Cebu City has seven barangay isolation centers but only three were occupied.

“Our records are clearly showing a decline. But let us not be complacent. There is a tendency for people to be complacent when restrictions are eased,” Garganera said.

The city is under MECQ until Sept. 7.

Cebu City logged 4,354 active cases as of Aug. 30, according to the Department of Health in Central Visayas.

Since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, the city recorded a total of 37,682 cases, with 32,163 recoveries and 1,165 deaths.

Cebu City has 165,231 fully vaccinated individuals, or about 25.8 percent of its population, records from the Visayas Vaccination Operation Center showed.

—DALE G. ISRAEL