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Cebu City hospitals in 'safe zone' with lesser Covid cases: EOC

By John Rey Saavedra

September 22, 2021, 6:26 pm

<p>Cebu City Councilor Joel Garganera (left). <em>(File photo)</em></p>

Cebu City Councilor Joel Garganera (left). (File photo)

CEBU CITY – The Emergency Operations Center (EOC) on Wednesday said hospitals accommodating coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) patients are now in a "safe zone", citing the police and village officials’ effort to instill proactive behavior in residents.

Councilor Joel Garganera, head of the EOC here, said in a press briefing the 15 public and private hospitals in Cebu City are no longer overwhelmed with Covid-19 patients and have coped well with a surge in cases that started in mid-August.

“Of the 15 hospitals, including 11 private hospitals, all are on the safe zone except one hospital which is on the moderate zone,” Garganera said, noting that the daily number of new Covid-19 cases reached as many as 400 in the past weeks but the number has now decreased to two digits.

Based on the Department of Health (DOH)-Region 7 bulletin, the city logged 65 new coronavirus cases with 109 new recoveries on Tuesday.

While the locality has 2,507 active infections, a total of 36,118 recoveries have been recorded since the start of the pandemic in March last year.

Garganera also noted that the positivity rate is now below 10 percent. “Although the ideal positivity rate according to WHO (World Health Organization) is five percent, but today we have 6.2 percent. Out of 1,054 individuals tested, only 66 are positive of Covid-19,” he said.

The EOC, he said, has also observed that hospitals have improved triage procedures which help in referring patients to care centers and isolation facilities.

The city government has been able to cut down the referral period with assistance from the barangay isolation centers and Cebu City Quarantine Center, Garganera said.

“This is a product of a collective assessment right now that we are going to the end of the month, we are going to assess what steps to be taken for next month as we transition to another quarantine status to be lowered,” he said.

As the city is transitioning to modified general community quarantine (MGCQ), the city will also ramp up convergence of stakeholders to prepare for the more relaxed restrictions, he noted.

Garganera also pointed out that although the city is likely to be placed under MGCQ, the EOC will endeavor to retain some stringent measures to sustain the gains and prevent another surge in Covid-19 cases.

“We continue to achieve positive results of our collective efforts to survive and ride out the prevailing health and economic crisis the pandemic has brought us,” Acting Mayor Michael Rama, for his part, said in a statement.

He said the city’s front-liners, law enforcers and force multipliers have been “involved with our EOC and in our vaccination efforts, and every citizen of our beloved city deserves the credit of how things have been so far”.

Rama hinted that “Oplan Puyo” (operation plan stay at home) may be retained even if the city will transition to a lower risk classification. (PNA)

 

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