Año says Cebu City must do more COVID-19 tests, contact tracing

June 17, 2020

Interior Secretary Eduardo Año on Wednesday assured Cebu City Mayor Edgar Labella that reverting the city to enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) is not a punishment and he must use the period given to them to conduct mass testing and contact tracing.

In a TV interview, Año said the Interagency Task Force’s (IATF) decision on placing Cebu City back to ECQ is due to their current situation.

"The current situation in Cebu City is heavy… If we will summarize, their active cases are 2,045 and if you look at the hospitals there, they are complaining because of the volume. So what we need here is for Cebu City to have a period where they can lockdown and stop the spread of virus,” he said.

"This is not to punish the residents of Cebu (City. This is for them to be given a chance to conduct contact tracing, (mass) testing, and place the people under quarantine,” he added.

Interior Secretary Eduardo Año on Wednesday assured Cebu City Mayor Edgar Labella that reverting back the city to enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) is not a punishment for them and he must use the period given to them to conduct mass testing and contact tracing.

In a TV interview, Año said the Interagency Task Force’s (IATF) decision on placing Cebu City back to ECQ is due to their current situation.

"The current situation in Cebu City is heavy… If we will summarize, their active cases are 2,045 and if you look at the hospitals there, they are complaining because of the volume so what we need here is for Cebu City to have a period where they can lockdown and stop the spread of virus,” he said.

"This is not to punish the residents of Cebu (City), this is for them to be given a chance to conduct contact tracing, (mass) testing, and place the people under quarantine,” he added.

Año said they don’t want Cebu City to experience the same thing as in Metro Manila where it took them four to five days before they can cremate a cadaver.

“There is an ongoing spike in the outbreak and we cannot just ignore it,” he said.

Año said Labella is free to appeal to the national government.

"There’s no problem if he wants to make an appeal but that is the recommendation of IATF and was approved by the President (Rodrigo Duterte). I already talked to Mayor Labella yesterday, I told him ‘It’s okay if you want to appeal but you must also use this period to lock down Cebu City,” said Año.

He assured Labella that the Philippine National Police will help him implement the quarantine protocols.

In a statement, Labella said he will  appeal to the IATF over their decision as he believes the city should remain under general community quarantine (GCQ).

Duterte last Monday decided to revert Cebu City to ECQ until June 30. Ella Dionisio/DMS