CAGAYAN de Oro City Mayor Oscar Moreno on Monday, May 17, denied reports that he wrote to Health Secretary Francisco Duque III to ask for the upgrading of the city's quarantine level to modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ).

"Unsa na ba kaha'y giabot sa huna-huna nga mo-resort pa niana na ako kuno nag request kang Secretary Duque nga i-upgrade ang quarantine level sa Cagayan de Oro to modified ECQ," Moreno said.

"That's a total fabrication. A senseless and cruel fabrication. A lie," he added.

Moreno said the report is a handiwork of people who want to pin him down.

At present, Cagayan de Oro is under modified general community quarantine despite the increase in the number of new Covid-19 cases.

Over the weekend, the city recorded 143 new coronavirus infections that brought the cumulative case count to 5,913 and which increased the total active cases to 893.

The city's recovery rate is at 80.68 percent after it registered 121 recoveries.

"We're doing everything we can... The solution that we need is ang kooperasyon sa katawhan," Moreno said.