With over 5,500 Covid-19 cases, Cebu City is set to become the new epicentre in the country. More doctors and drones are being sent.

Govt sending in more resources after alarming rise in cases

The Philippines is sending more doctors, drones and other resources to Cebu City amid signs that the key hub is emerging as the country’s new epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic.

Cebu now has over 5,500 cases of Covid-19 and at least 156 have died, the health Ministry noted last Saturday.

The city now has more cases than Metropolitan Manila’s largest city, Quezon, which has about 3,000.

It is also outpacing other cities in terms of the number of cases over the past two weeks – close to 1,000.

By comparison, Quezon City had 364 and Manila, 280.

Cebu is the top commercial and tourist hub in central Philippines with a population of about a million.

“We are seeing an alarming rise in severe and critical cases ... even death rates,” Carlito Galvez, who heads a task force overseeing the government’s efforts to slow the virus, said yesterday.

he reported that at one hospital, 86 out of 122 Covid-19 patients died less than 48 hours after they were admitted: “This means we’re not detecting severe cases fast enough.”

Three in 10 suspected Covid-19 patients in Cebu are turning up positive.

hospitals have run out of beds and health workers are exhausted and overwhelmed. Galvez said there are only seven big hospitals in Cebu that can handle a surge in cases. By comparison, Metro Manila has at least 46.

Cebu has been on hard lockdown since last Wednesday. About 100 checkpoints have been set up to ensure everyone stays home, and only those on “essential runs” can go out.

Galvez said that apart from Cebu, the rest of the Philippines seems to have the outbreak under control, although around 1,000 new cases are still being reported daily.