AND then there were two.
There used to be four barangays in Cebu City that seem to have escaped from the clutches of the coronavirus pandemic since the disease was first detected in the city on March 29, 2020.
These were Barangays Buot, Paril, Tabunan and Tagbao.
That all changed after the holidays.
On Jan. 7, 2021, Buot reported its first case followed by Tagbao earlier this month.
That leaves Paril and Tabunan as the only barangays in the city to have never reported any case since the health crisis began, according to City Councilor Joel Garganera, deputy chief implementer of the City’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC).
SunStar
+ February 13, 2021 THERE are enough facilities in Cebu City to handle the current spike of coronavirus cases in the city, according to the Department of Health Central
Visayas (DOH 7).
Data shows that out of 130 beds at the Bayanihan Cebu-IEC Field Center only 60 or 46 percent were occupied as of Thursday, Feb. 11, 2021.
The facility is located at the International Eucharistic Congress Convention Center along Pope John Paul II Ave.
“IEC is still not fully occupied. While CCQC (Cebu City Quarantine Center) is already open and we lack occupancy,” said DOH 7 Director Jaime Bernadas in a mix of Cebuano and English when asked if he saw the need to open other field centers for Covid-19 patients.
SunStar
File photo February 04, 2021 THE Cebu City Emergency Operations Center (EOC) plans to reduce the number of days required for asymptomatic Covid-19 patients inside quarantine facilities.
From the 14-day mandatory stay in isolation centers, the EOC wants to limit the stay to only 10 days, provided the patient continues to have no symptoms of Covid-19 three days prior to his 10th day of confinement.
Cebu City Councilor Joel Garganera, EOC deputy chief implementer, said this is seriously being studied by the EOC as it would greatly help in the turnaround of patients in the city’s isolation centers.
Garganera said the patients can continue to serve the remaining four days of quarantine at home.
SunStar
File photo January 31, 2021 EVEN though coronavirus cases in Cebu City are on the rise, the Project Balik Buhay’s (PBB) data on critical care capacity management of private hospitals in Cebu show that the city’s current situation is far better from when the city was under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) status in July 2020.
Assistant Secretary Anthony Gerard Gonzales of the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas (Opav), quoting a Jan. 27, 2021 report of the PBB, said the health care system of Cebu City, where major hospitals that cater to Covid-19 patients in the whole of Cebu are located, is “able to cope.”