FACE MASKS FOR VILLAGERS. To help in the fight against Covid-19 in Cebu City, business tycoon Enrique Razon Jr. (represented by Michael Rey Aquino, extreme right) and Kim Wong (second from right) hand over one million surgical face masks to Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Sec. Michael Lloyd Dino (center). Also shown are Police Regional Office (PRO-7) chief, Gen. Albert Ignatius Ferro (left), and Regional Development Council (RDC-7) chair Kenneth Cobonpue, holding one of 2,000 raincoats, during the turnover of donations on Wednesday (June 17, 2020). (Photo courtesy of OPAV)
CEBU CITY – A million surgical masks donated by a Manila-based businessman will be distributed to the barangays here to bolster the campaign for the mandatory wearing of face masks in public, Secretary Michael Lloyd Dino said on Friday.
Dino, head of the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas (OPAV), said in a statement that the donated surgical masks will be distributed to the villages on Saturday as part of the efforts to contain the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
At the height of the alarming rise of Covid-19 cases here, Dino said he called up a friend, Kim Wong, to elicit ideas on how the villages here can get assistance from businessmen in Metro Manila in their fight against the coronavirus.
In response, Wong turned over on Wednesday one million surgical masks and 2,000 raincoats to Dino.
The donated protective gears, Dino said, came from Wong himself and business tycoon Enrique Razon Jr.
The statement said Cebu City councilors Raymund Alvin Garcia and Eduardo Rama Jr. will initiate the distribution of the surgical masks to the barangay captains on Saturday.
The raincoats will be given to the Philippine National Police so that their uniformed personnel will have protection during the rainy season while helping implement health and safety protocols under the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).
Dino said the donated surgical masks will remind the Cebuanos about “the importance of wearing masks to prevent transmission” of the coronavirus.
“In reverting Cebu City to the enhanced community quarantine status, the COVID-19 Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) noted that many Cebuanos in the streets did not wear masks and did not observe social distancing,” the statement read.
It said that a study by a group of researchers connected with different universities in the U.S. analyzed the trend and mitigation measures in Wuhan, Italy and New York and concluded that wearing of face covering “significantly reduces the number of infections”.
Dino said Cebu City residents would no longer have a reason to go out without face masks since their barangays will have their own supply.
“When I said Cebu is the most prepared, I said we are most prepared in terms of logistics,” he said.
OPAV has been providing personal protective equipment (PPE) and medical supplies to Cebu City government, other local government units (LGU) and hospitals in Cebu.
“The (spread of) infections could not be blamed on a single person. This (preventing the spread of the virus) is a responsibility of each and every person," Dino said.
He also reminded LGUs about President Rodrigo Duterte's directive to strictly observe protocols set by the IATF-EID.
"To discipline the people, we are calling on the LGUs, especially the barangay captains to man their posts,” he said. (PNA)
