Cebu governor thinks COVID-19 not as deadly as most people fear

CEBU CITY — Citing the total number of deaths in the province, Cebu Governor Gwen Garcia believes that the coronavirus disease 2019 (2019) was not as deadly as most people fear.

The governor, however, emphasized that the public should not be complacent and health protocols must be strictly followed once the province shifts from enhanced community quarantine to general community quarantine.

Garcia discussed the deadliness of COVID-19 when she met with mayors of the province’s 44 towns and six component cities last Friday.

Garcia pointed out there were only eight deaths out of the 60 confirmed cases in the province as of May 15.

Garcia said that Cebu has a population of 3.2 million, and with eight deaths, there were only three mortalities for every three million Cebuanos.

“My perspective has totally changed because of the figures that we now have,” said Garcia.

Present in the meeting was Dr. Jaime Bernadas, regional director of the Department of Health Central Visayas (DOH-7), who said that most of the fatalities were immunecompromised.

Garcia further explained that there were other illnesses with higher mortality rate than COVID-19 and that most of the COVID-19 patients were asymptomatic or those who are not manifesting symptoms such as fever and cough.

“We cannot treat this as a deadly virus because it is not,” said Garcia.

During the meeting, it was agreed that the province will be placed under GCQ starting May 20.

The governor added that the province cannot be placed under isolation for too long as there is a need to resuscitate the economy.

An Executive Order (EO) defining the protocols under GCQ will soon be released.

Under the draft EO, restaurants, fast food chains and carenderias will be allowed to open provided that it will only accept customers equivalent to 50 percent of the establishment’s capacity.

“Mall and shopping centers are allowed with limited operations and shall comply faithfully with Department of Trade and Industry memorandum,” read the draft EO

Gyms, fitness, sports, recreation centers, bars, pubs, karaoke establishments, movie house, swimming pools, cockpits and other leisure centers will not be allowed during the GCQ.