Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. on Monday maintained that there has been under-reporting of COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) cases in Cebu City following the recent death of a British national who succumbed to cardiac arrest inside an ambulance hours after being refused admission in a hospital
“Sorry it happened. Apparently there’s been under-reporting. One thing about the pandemic is you can under-report it on the paper but you can’t under-report on the deaths there are…they couldn’t handle it anymore,” Locsin said on Headstart program over ANC.
The DFA chief said Health Secretary Francisco Duque III is “not taking anybody’s word for it” and will investigate the circumstances that led to the death of the British national.
Quoting his friends in Cebu, Locsin said the hospitals where the British national was earlier brought for admission “are really full beyond their capacity.”
“They do have a problem in Cebu, the lockdown is not being well observed or well enforced,” he said.
Last week, Locsin Jr. sent his “abject apologies” to the United Kingdom following the death of the British national.
“He (British national) never complained; got cardiac arrest; doctors didn’t help. He died. Shame. Abject apologies to UK,” Locsin wrote on Twitter last week.
The foreign secretary even criticized the Cebu City government for what he called “grossly undercounted” individuals infected with COVID-19.
“Why our President put the city in extreme quarantine. And it’s not working. Little or no cooperation,” Locsin said.
On June 15, 2020, President Duterte placed Cebu City under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) status from June 16-June 30 due to the continued spike in the number of COVID-19 cases.
To date, Cebu City has more than 4,200 confirmed COVID-19 cases, nearly 60 fatalities, and over 2,000 recoveries. (Roy Mabasa)
