Cebu City Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia signed an order creating an inter-agency task force led by the City Health Department against the Monkeypox (Mpox) virus on Monday, June 2, 2025. 

The task force would “oversee the status of and monitor cases in Cebu City,” based on a post of the Cebu City Public Information Office (PIO).

The mayor also recommended for the City Council to craft an ordinance (or ordinances) addressing the matter, particularly an emergency plan for disaster to address the health concern, the post added. 

There are three confirmed cases and four suspected Mpox cases in Cebu City, the Department of Health (DOH) 7 disclosed, but the three confirmed cases have already healed, while the suspected cases are “currently isolated" and that there should be "no cause for alarm.”

Garcia said that the Mpox virus is passed on through skin-to-skin contact. 

The mayor has assured that the city’s hospitals have been “more than ready for and aware of the virus as early as last year,” the PIO post further said.

DOH Central Visayas confirms 7 cases 

Dr. Joshua Brillantes, director of the Department of Health (DOH) Central Visayas, disclosed of at least seven Mpox cases since 2024 in the region. 

One case was recorded in 2024, while the six cases were logged since January 2025.

Three cases were recorded in Cebu City, and one case each in the Province of Cebu, Talisay City, Mandaue City, and Lapu-Lapu City. 

Talisay City recorded one death case. However, the cause of death did not cite directly it was because of Mpox. 

"The cause of death is not directly Mpox, naa siya'y co-morbidity, ni-low ang iyang immune system," Brillantes said in an interview with GMA Regional TV Balitang Bisdak on June 2, 2025. 

The six others have recovered already, Brillantes added.

The patients were all males, less than 40 years old, without history of travel abroad, Brillantes disclosed. 

He said there was a case that had history of local travel, to Manila particulary, but has already healed from Mpox.