DOH: Only Cebu City under ECQ, not Central Visayas

MANILA, Philippines — Only Cebu City – not the entire Central Visayas – is under enhanced community quarantine, while Talisay City also in Cebu province is under modified ECQ, the Department of Health (DOH) clarified yesterday.

“There is no truth to the report,” DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said, referring to an erroneous story that appeared in The STAR yesterday. The STAR apologizes for the error.

“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 MECQ,” she pointed out, referring to the less stringent general community quarantine for most of the region that includes Negros Oriental, Bohol and Siquijor.

“DOH does not have the authority to release such an information because only the Inter-Agency Task Force and (presidential) spokesperson Harry Roque can provide the general public with this kind of information,” she said.

Vergeire disclosed the DOH’s Epidemiology Bureau has been tasked to closely monitor the overall situation in Cebu City which had seen a surge in cases in the past days.

Based on DOH Tracker for COVID-19 as of June 18, there were 27,799 confirmed cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the country. Of these, 4,832 came from Central Visayas.

Data show Cebu City topped the list of cities with 3,216COVID-19 cases.

According to Vergeire, there are many factors that explain the high COVID-19 cases in Cebu City.

“First of all, Cebu City is very pro-active in their contact tracing and expanded testing. They are very diligent when it comes to these things and these can be factors for the rise in cases there,” she said.

The other possible reasons are the “clustering of cases” in detention facilities and communities in the city and the arrival of “returning overseas Filipinos and overseas Filipino workers.”

“We wanted to be sure with our information so that we can address the situation there appropriately. We already sent our epidemiologists… I think last Tuesday, to investigate,” she added.

Interior Secretary Eduardo Año also clarified the entire Central Visayas region is not under lockdown and that some areas may even be placed under less restrictive modified general community quarantine (MGCQ). Some LGUs like in Bohol, he said, have opted to remain under GCQ to control the movement of people.

“Areas in Central Visayas are managing quite well. Some of them may even shift to MGCQ,” Año said in Filipino over dzBB.

Meanwhile, 11 more Filipinos abroad have died from COVID-19, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) reported yesterday.

The DFA said the fatalities were reported in two counties in the Middle East. The death toll from COVID-19 of Filipinos abroad reached 483 as of yesterday.

The number of COVID-19 positive Filipinos overseas rose to 6,128, with the addition of 37 new cases.

Six Filipinos, on the other hand, recovered from the disease, bringing the total number of recoveries to 2,849. There are 2,796 Filipinos abroad undergoing treatment, the DFA said. Helen Flores, Romina Cabrera