By CALVIN CORDOVA
CEBU CITY – Cebu has been placed under a state of enhanced community quarantine in a move that Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia described as an “extreme decision” in the fight against the dreaded novel coronavirus disease-2019.
Garcia issued Executive Order No. 5-N last Wednesday night that placed the province under ECQ “effective immediately.”
“We are gearing towards declaring a total lockdown,” said Garcia in a press conference a few hours before she formally issued the EO.
Garcia was set to meet the mayors of the 44 towns and six component cities in the province yesterday to discuss “further protocols and guidelines.”
Also in an emergency session yesterday, the provincial board approved a resolution declaring a state of calamity and extreme public health emergency in the province.
The EO stated starting today, “the entry of all persons arriving on international flights in the Province of Cebu shall be prohibited.”
“I have to make this extreme decision to protect Cebu and the Cebuanos. We are talking about human lives here,” said Garcia.
“And as always, I will be counting on the support of our Philippine National Police and military, to see to it that this lockdown will be strictly enforced,” added Garcia.
Police Brig. Gen. Albert Ignatius Ferro, chief PNP Regional Office 7, said they will observe “maximum tolerance” in enforcing the lockdown.
“Movement will be limited. There will be quarantine passes that will be issued. Workers can pass through checkpoints as long as they can present identification cards or pertinent documents,” said Ferro.
Data from Department of Health-Central Visayas showed that there is one confirmed COVID-19 case in Cebu while there are eight “presumptive positive cases” subject for confirmatory test at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine in Muntinlupa City.
Dr. Jaime Bernadas, director of DOH 7, said of the presumptive positive cases, one is in Mandaue City, six in Cebu City, and one in Lapu-Lapu City.
There are 16,709 Persons Under Monitoring in Central Visayas.
Bernadas said the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center testing center has already conducted 81 tests and 72 yielded negative results.
