Cebu City has 'done quite well' in COVID-19 intervention, says mayor

Citing the city's recovery rate from COVID-19, Cebu City Mayor Edgar Labella on Thursday said the city has "done quite well" in addressing the pandemic.

In a television interview, Labella said they have a recovery rate of over 50%.

“We have 2,897 recoveries from COVID-19. The active cases are 2,699,” he told ANC.

“By way of percentage, our recovery rate is 52%. Vis-a-vis the recovery rate at the national level which is at 27%, we have done quite well as far as our intervention [on COVID-19] is concerned,” Labella added.

Labella attributed the high recovery rate to aggressive mass testing and contact tracing efforts in the city since the end of March.

“I don’t care if we register the most number of positive COVID-19 cases. What is important is we have a moral and legal duty to identify the COVID-19 patients and prevent COVID-19 [transmission],” he said.

Likewise, Labella maintained that the city’s quarantine facilities are compliant with the standards set by the Department of Health (DOH).

“The barangay isolation areas… before we converted public school buildings as isolation areas [for COVID-19 patients], it was inspected by the Department of Health (DOH), and they were compliant with DOH requirements,” he said.

Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu, who was tasked by President Rodrigo Duterte to oversee Cebu City's response to the pandemic, earlier said that quarantine facilities located in Cebu City’s barangays had infected surroundings and caused COVID-19 transmission.

Labella then said that while the bed capacity of these 52 school buildings as isolation areas is at 2,000 to 2,500, only 900 are occupied.

“We have enough quarantine facilities,” he said.

President Duterte has earlier tagged Cebu City as the hotspot for COVID-19 in the country and even admonished Cebuanos for defying quarantine protocols such as observing physical distancing and staying at home.

Cebu City is the lone city in the Philippines that is still under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), the strictest among all quarantine classifications. The city on Wednesday reported 107 new cases COVID-19, raising the total to 5,596.

The Cebu City Health Department (CHD) also said total recoveries rose to 2,897 after 174 more patients recovered from the respiratory illness, while the death toll climbed to 180 with 11 new fatalities.

There are also 2,519 active cases undergoing treatment or quarantine. —KBK, GMA News