THE Cebu City Emergency Operations Center (EOC) added more personnel and resources for its extraction efforts to meet the rising number of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases.
Harold Alcontin, City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO) operations head and in-charge of extraction team, said personnel and ambulances from CDRRMO helped fast-track efforts of the EOC extraction team.
CDRRMO head Ramil Ayuman added 20 personnel for the extraction team.
Ten more barangay isolation centers with 762-bed capacity have also been opened to accommodate new cases.
The additional resources have helped the Cebu City EOC address the spike in coronavirus disease cases.
Alcontin cited the importance of extraction of Covid cases during an episode of “Mugstoria Ta,” an online conversation hosted by Assistant Secretary Anthony Gerard “Jonji” Gonzales of the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas.
He explained that extraction teams are tasked with pulling out Covid-19 patients from their homes and transferring them to isolation centers.
Doing these would help minimize the possibility of transmission to household members, Alcontin said.
The house with a positive case will also be locked down and household members have to undergo swab tests.
The challenge remains that the majority of the individuals who tested positive for Covid-19 in Cebu City do not cooperate with the authorities, especially during extraction procedures.
The EOC extraction team had to contend with the sudden spike in positive cases on Wednesday, Feb. 10, when there were 250 Covid patients who needed to be transferred to isolation centers.
The EOC had been given until this weekend to extract all the backlogs by retired Maj. Gen. Melquiades Feliciano, chief implementer of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases in the Visayas. Among the barangays with double-digit positive cases in just one day are Barangay Tisa, Guadalupe, Labangon, Lahug, Punta Princesa, Mabolo and Capitol Site.
As of Feb. 12, Cebu City recorded a total of 14,160 Covid-19 cases since March of 2020. There were 2,671 active cases and a total of 711 deaths.
Out of the active cases, 413 are isolated in Barangay Isolation Centers, 396 are in the New Normal Oasis for Adaptation and a Home Complex, 155 are in the Cebu City Quarantine Center, 60 are staying in the Bayanihan Cebu IEC Field Center while others are staying in Department of Health-accredited hotels and pension houses. (PR)