CEBU, Philippines — “We cannot be on a lockdown again. It would be economically suicidal for us and I don’t think this will solve our problem right now.”
This was the statement of Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, chief pathologist and spokesperson of the Department of Health (DOH)-7, on Monday, February 22, as she and other DOH officials from the region will defend before its central office anew on Friday, February 29, why Region-7 can remain under modified general community quarantine (MGCQ).
Along with this, DOH-7 urged the public anew to observe minimum health protocols faithfully as government struggles to find the right balance between preserving health and resuscitating an ailing economy almost a year since Cebu and Region 7 were locked down because of COVID-19.
Loreche said they will show in the meeting with the DOH central office the data from the region as it does not synchronize with the data in Manila.
“On Friday, I am presenting our very own data. Just because we need a biosurveillance does not mean na dapat ay tayo lang ang tutukan at sasabihan na ang mutations of concern ay nasa atin lang at dapat i-lockdown tayo at restrict the travel para hindi natin madala sa ibang lugar. I don’t think that’s fair because we are the only region, I believe, that is conducting a very thorough biosurveillance,” Loreche said.
Last week, taking the surge in cases and virus mutations into consideration, the Technical Advisory Council of the DOH central office recommended a higher quarantine restriction and to restrict travel from Visayas to other regions.
But Loreche said that the biosurveillance result for Central Visayas, which found mutations of concern identified by the Philippine Genome Center, the E484Y and the N501Y, should not be a reason for a lockdown.
“If we are going to lock down, as in lock down the entire Central Visayas or maybe Cebu City, which has the highest number, what will be the impact on the economy? Kaya pa ba nato mo-survive? The virus, I believe is just all over town, but the thing there is, we here in Central Visayas really thought of having a scientific, logical way of looking at things,” Loreche said.
This is precisely why, she said, DOH-7 conducted biosurveillance.
“Coming from us here, we do not actually recommend that we will be placed in a stricter quarantine status. We understand that our cases continue to rise and we expected this. Again, we already have an open economy, we already know that there are so much people movement, establishments are already open, so we expected that,” Loreche added.
Appeal
With the total active cases in the region totaling 6,195 as of February 21, Loreche appealed to the public anew to take it upon themselves to stop the contagion.
“Kitang tanan, maningkamot ta nga dili ta makakuha og virus aron dili ta makatakod sa atong mga pinalangga sa kinabuhi nato ug dili pud modaghan ang atong mga kaso. It has to start from within. Unless there is that mindset, there has to be a paradigm shift nga kung kitang tanan mag-amping, I believed we can fight this off. We do not need to be on a lockdown, we don’t have to be on ECQ,” Loreche said.
She added:“COVID is here whether we like it or not. There will be mutations, there will be variants, and the vaccines may or may not be as effective as it should be… there will be boosters coming in… but its starts within us to discipline and follow the minimum health measures that we have.”
Loreche said cases in Central Visayas, especially Cebu City with 3,142 active cases, are not alarming but bothersome.
“It is bothersome, which means each one within ourselves should panic and think nga daghan diay ko dapat buhaton para dili ko maapil anang numero nga mahimo akong new case or maapil ko anang total active cases. Yes, we have a bothersome number. This is what it will take with an open economy and I believe those other areas under MGCQ will have to look at us here, how we are, because of the very open economy already,” she said.
Attack Rate
Loreche said the post-holiday surges remain as contributor to continued rise in the number of new cases, as contact tracing continue to be aggressive. With contacts identified, extraction, testing, and isolation follow.
In Cebu City, the attack rate has now reached 24.8 percent, the highest since the city has been tagged as the epicenter of the pandemic in the country last year.
This paved the way for Cebu City to breach the 3,000 mark in total active cases. Most of the cases in Cebu City are asymptomatic at 2,795, mild cases at 159, moderate cases at 116, severe cases at 67, and critically ill at 14.
Based on latest data from the Emergency Operations Center (EOC), household transmission went up again as against outside transmission and other sources of infection.
Of the 250 new cases, a total of 143 cases were traced to household infection and 92 others from outside transmission.
Seventy-one of the city’s 80 barangays have infections in the last 10 days.
“For Cebu City, taas kaayo atong attack rate at 24.8 percent. Meaning to say, you have 25 individuals that have the virus per 100,000 population,” Loreche said. — Caecent No-ot Magsumbol, JMO (FREEMAN)