Cebu City gov’t cancels all quarantine passes issued to residents amid lockdown

Mayor appeals for “calm, understanding”

(Eagle News)–The Cebu City government has  canceled all quarantine passes issued to its residents, after President Rodrigo Duterte lamented what he said was the continued rise in COVID-19 cases in Cebu.

Mayor Edgar Labella said the decision  was made upon the recommendation of the Department of the Interior and Local Government, a day after the  President ordered Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu to go to Cebu and assess the COVID-19 response there.

“This drastic measure was put in place after an Inter-Agency Task Force team went around the city earlier today and still found many people out of their homes,” Labella said.

In a video message uploaded on Tuesday night, Labella appealed for “calm and understanding,” but noted everyone had a “common goal, which is to save our community from this pandemic.”

He said  he would inform residents about how to get the new quarantine pass in the coming days, noting that  he would have a meeting with concerned agencies today.

“We will work to ease this transition as part of efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19,” Labella said.

On Monday, President  Duterte noted what he said was the Cebuanos’ slow response to the COVID-19 virus, which has so far infected over 31000 in the country.

“Bakit marami? Because you were too confident and too complacent about it.Binalewala ninyo,” the President had said, referring to the confirmed COVID-19 cases.

Cebu City  was the only city to be reverted to an enhanced community quarantine area since June 15.

In a presentation on Monday,  the Department of Health said the city had the highest number of fresh cases this week, at 584.

Central Visayas, where the city of at least 250,000 residents is located, ranked second on the list of regions with the most COVID-19 cases, at 937, the DOH reported.

On Tuesday, the DOH reported 320 COVID-19 cases from Central Visayas.

This is 27.82% of the 1150 COVID-19 cases reported on that day.