DOH watching COVID-19 situation in Cebu

May 8, 2020

The Department of Health (DOH) Friday said it is keeping a close eye on the increasing number of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in Cebu.

In a virtual press conference, Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) Technical Advisory Group head Edsel Salvana said: ''"We are also seeing outbreaks in Cebu. What has been causing recent increase in the number of cases are those in Cebu.''

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire also cited the Cebu Province's improving testing capacity as among the reasons for rising cases of COVID-19.

"The testing capacity of Cebu has increased tremendously. When testing started at the Vicente Sotto Medical Center, its capacity was just 90 tests per day. Now, they are doing an average of 550 to 600 tests per day. So they have already increased their capacity," said Vergeire.

She said there has been a recent clustering of cases in Cebu jails.

"The big chunks of cases come from closed institutions, like the jails in Cebu, where there are clustering of cases, not in the communities," said Vergeire.

DOH data Thursday said there are 1,371 COVID-19 cases in Cebu, including 15 dead. DMS