Cebu City has at least 12,000 locally stranded individuals (LSIs) who are still not allowed to leave the place amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis.
Interviewed over GMA-7’s Unang Balita, beamed nationwide, Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu, tasked by President Rodrigo Duterte to oversee the COVID-19 response in the Visayas, said “they are staying in their respective places where they live, in boarding houses and also with their relatives. But they cannot leave.”
“Because of the enhanced community quarantine, they will have to undergo the process before we allow them (to leave) once the ECQ is lifted,” he added.
But he stressed there was a “dramatic” improvement in people’s compliance to the lockdown’s guidelines.
“Not all of them (Cebuanos) are stubborn. Many of them are complying compared to the initial days of the ECQ. There is a dramatic compliance (among the people). I just hope this kind of behavior would continue,” he said.
“I believe the virus spread during mass gatherings,” he added.
Meanwhile, the local government unit of Cebu City is investigating two mass gatherings that allegedly violated protocols to contain the pandemic despite the imposed lockdown.
Mayor Edgardo Labella said Wednesday he ordered the city attorney to look into a “disco” in Barangay Calamba on Monday night and a Sinulog dance presentation in Barangay Basak San Nicolas last weekend.
The mayor did not give additional details about the disco but said he was told by the village chief of Basak San Nicolas that the Sinulog event was not supposed to have any crowd and instead should have just involved a procession of Señor Sto. Niño.
Labella told ABS-CBN’s TeleRadyo: “There are already many Special Action Force soldiers here, but the lockdown was still violated. That’s why the President said Visayans are hardheaded.”
Duterte from June 16 placed the urban center under ECQ which limits economic activity to utility services, food, water and other essential sectors.
He announced Tuesday night the city would remain under ECQ, the strictest of four lockdown levels, until July 15, which means going outside the homes is banned unless the purpose was to buy food or they are authorized persons outside of residence.
Cebu City has the highest COVID-19 tally in the country, with 4,639 cases as of Monday. Of this figure, 987 were tallied in the last 14 days, according to the health department.
Meanwhile, Central Visayas police chief Brig. Gen. Albert Ignatius Ferro on Wednesday said Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong and his team would help in the contact tracing efforts of Cebu City.
“Actually, we requested the help of my former boss and he is very much willing to train our people on the contact tracing. It will be based primarily on the cognitive interviewing techniques which most of our policemen are trained with,” Ferro told a press briefing.
“We hope that these coming days or next week, the technical team of Baguio City and members of the team of General Magalong will be coming to help us,” he added.
Magalong, former director of the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, has been stressing the importance of contact tracing in efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Baguio City was earlier hailed as a model local government unit for managing to keep its COVID-19 cases low.
