Palace explains gov’t decision to place Cebu City under MECQ

Malacañang on Thursday observed some improvements in the COVID-19 situation in Cebu City, whose quarantine status has been downgraded following a month of strict lockdown.

Cebu City will be under modified enhanced community quarantine until July 31 following a decision by President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday, which according to his spokesperson Harry Roque was based on the recommendation of his deputies.

“As far as the classification of Cebu is concerned we actually gave premium to the recommendation of [Environment] Secretary [Roy] Cimatu as well as the chief implementers Secretary [Carlito] Galvez and Secretary [Eduardo] Año,” Roque said in a CNN-Philippines interview.

“Cebu could have been even more relaxed but Secretary Año observed that the deaths have only begun to slow down.”

Roque said while the case doubling time and critical care capacity have improved, “it was deemed best” to place  Cebu under MECQ instead of the less stringent general community quarantine because “we don’t know if the trend will hold.”

“If you look at the data of Cebu, it’s almost like a rollercoaster, sometimes the death will shoot up, sometimes it will not, meaning, intense community transition is still ongoing in Cebu,” he said.

“So, the better option is to put it on MECQ for the next two weeks but we will see after two weeks if they can graduate already to GCQ.”

Duterte earlier criticized Cebuanos for being too slow in complying with the national government's measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

He described Cebuanos as hardheaded and said they were too confident and complacent about the situation.

In the same interview, Roque disclosed that the government granted the appeals of the cities of Bacolod, Iloilo and Davao as well as the province of Bulacan not to place them under GCQ.

“These four [areas] were supposed to have been elevated back to GCQ but on appeal they were allowed to remain on MGCQ [modified general community quarantine],” he said.

Apart from the case doubling time, Roque said the government also considered the economic risk, the capacity of the local government units to carry out localized lockdowns and their “political will” to implement the minimum public health standards to curb the spread of the virus in deciding whether an appeal should be granted. — RSJ, GMA News