CEBU, Philippines — Twenty-three barangays in Cebu City will receive cash incentives from the city government for being free of COVID-19 cases for two months.
The barangays include Adlaon, Agsungot, Babag, Binaliw, Bonbon, Buot, Guba, Kalubihan, Kamagayan, Lusaran, Malubog, Pari-an, Paril, Pung-ol Sibugay, San Antonio, Sinsin, Sirao, Sudlon I and II, Tabunan, Tagba-o, Taptap and Tinago.
Each barangay will get P100,000.
Cebu City has 80 barangays.
Mayor Edgardo Labella said the budget will be charged against the city-sponsored activities account.
“I’ll instruct the treasurer to process right away their cash reward from the account city-sponsored activities of the city,” he said in a text message.
Labella offered the reward for barangays that have achieved zero COVID-19 infections beginning November until December last year.
The mayor’s decision came following the challenge of Secretary Roy Cimatu for Cebu City to be totally free of the disease.
Although the 23 barangays reported no COVID-19 transmission, City Councilor and Emergency Operations Center (EOC) deputy director Joel Garganera said it does not mean that they are already COVID-free.
He explained that no mass testing was done in these villages for surveillance.
The January 2 data of EOC showed that 46 barangays have had no active cases in the past 14 days. A week before Christmas, there were 59 barangays with no reported transmission of COVID.
Based on the case bulletin issued by the Department of Health-7 on January 2, Cebu City has 152 active cases, including 24 new ones.
For five straight days, Cebu City registered a double-digit increase in its number of new COVID-19 patients in a day.
January 2 had the most number of new cases at 24.
But EOC’s record only showed 22 active cases following a verification.
The 22 new cases are from 11 barangays.
Barangays Guadalupe and Pardo have four cases each, and Lahug has three. On the other hand, two cases were logged in Barangays Barrio Luz, Sambag 1, and Zapatera.
The rest of the cases are from Barangays Basak San Nicolas, Mambaling, San Antonio, Sawang Calero and Tisa.
The EOC is still conducting contract tracing to determine the sources of the new cases.
Based on its monitoring from December 19 to January 1, EOC reported 47.52 percent of household infections and 52.47 percent for outside transmission.
“What is good about the household infection is that it is easier to contain,” said Garganera.
Garganera said hike in COVID cases was expected due to the holiday season.
At present, hospitals remain on a “pink of health” with only 18 percent occupancy in public hospitals and 10 percent in private hospitals as far as COVID-19 is concerned.
The local government has encouraged residents to continue following minimum health standards to prevent the spread of the disease. — Mary Ruth R. Malinao, KQD (FREEMAN)