Cebu marks yet another day without new COVID-19 cases

CEBU CITY, Cebu, Philippines – For another day, on Monday, Cebu recorded no new novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, cases in Cebu.

The Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center, a sub-national laboratory recently accredited by the World Health Organization to test samples for COVID-19, conducted 54 tests on Monday and no one tested positive for the deadly virus.

Of the 54 samples, 21 came from the different component towns and cities of Cebu province, 18 from Cebu City, eight from Lapu-Lapu City, and seven from Mandaue City.

However, Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia said the province was still monitoring some 224 persons infected with Influenza-Like Illness (ILI) and three patients exhibiting Severe Acute Respiratory Infection — all of which will be subjected to swab tests for the coronavirus.

According to Garcia, the Department of Health in Central Visayas has already allocated 250 tests for the towns and cities in the province — excluding Cebu City and Lapu-Lapu City.

Since they had enough test kits, she said they were also thinking of including other individuals who might have been exposed to COVID-19 patients even if they were not exhibiting any symptoms of the virus.

Swab testing was also conducted on the island towns, including Bantayan and Camotes Group. The provincial health office is awaiting the results of these tests from the district hospitals of these islands.

Although COVID-19 cases in Cebu have slowed down, Garcia said she had not yet to decide on a specific date for lifting the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).

“I don’t want to give false hopes to the Cebuanos. The recent low rate of increase in COVID-19 is encouraging. But let us not be complacent,” Garcia said.

Last week, there were also no new COVID-19 cases in Cebu for two consecutive days.

“We are just one week into our Enhanced Community Quarantine. We are hopeful but better be more strict in the implementation of our quarantine,“ the governor said.

Garcia said she would also listen to the experts’ opinions, including those of the Department of Health and scientists dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, as well as Cebu’s business community.

She said that there was a need to prevent a “second wave” from happening as this would be more devastating than current development.

/atm