Cebu City is declared new ‘epicentre’ of coronavirus

MANILA: A senior Malacanang Palace official on Monday reported that Cebu City in the Visayas has emerged and replaced Metro Manila as the new “epicentre” of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) that continues to plague the world.

Carlito Galvez, the chief implementer of the National Task Force on COVID-19, explained that Cebu City, the capital of the island province of Cebu, has registered the highest increase in the number of infections, severe and critical cases, and deaths.

“Our focal point now is Cebu City, considering the parameters and thresholds. The new cases are really increasing surpassing those of the National Capital Region (or Metro Manila) and even the number of deaths is really high. The recovery rate is good at Level 3 hospitals but is very limited,” Galvez told a media briefing in a mix of Filipino and English.

As of Sunday, the health department reported that Cebu City had a total of 4,562 cases, followed by Quezon City, 3,160; Manila, 2,290; and Makati, 961 — all in Metro Manila — and Cebu province, 1,036.

Galvez, a retired military general, is the presidential adviser on the peace process who was appointed by President Duterte as the task force head in the intensified campaign against the dreaded ailment.

He acknowledged that Cebu City’s Level 3 hospitals appear to have been overwhelmed by the alarming increase in the number of COVID 19 cases. Level 3 hospitals are equipped with emergency and isolation rooms capable of managing infection diseases like COVID-19.

But Cebu City has only seven Level 3 hospitals compared to Metro Manila’s total of 46 to tackle the increasing number of confirmed virus infections, according to Galvez.

This developed as members of the elite Philippine National Police Special Action Force (SAF) and aerial drones hovering around the city have succeeded in keeping residents indoors following the strict implementation of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) or extreme lockdown.

Lieutenant General Guillermo Eleazar, the chief of the Joint Task Force COVID Shield, clarified that assignment of the 150 SAF commandos and the deployment of drones did not aim to “bully” Cebu residents.

“As we have observed in Metro Manila and other parts of Luzon before the deployment of SAF commandos resulted in the significant reduction of quarantine violators,” Eleazar explained.

He added: “We want to duplicate this success in Cebu City as part of our mandate to prevent the spread of COVID-19 by containing the movement of local residents and disabling unnecessary travels.”