To say that Cebu currently has its hands full with all sorts of problems may be an understatement.
It finds itself in the grip of a health crisis that has ravaged the province and the metro’s economy for the last 11 months.
However, authorities insist they have everything under control and the situation is not as bad as it seems.
Despite the number of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases continuing to rise, fatalities remain low.
Majority of the 2,668 patients who are afflicted with the disease are asymptomatic or experience mild or moderate symptoms. In fact, only 44 are considered severely ill and eight are critical.
The trend will most likely not change as the government revs up its contact tracing and testing efforts as it further eases restrictions and allows more businesses to operate while it tries to prevent runaway inflation.
Already, prices of certain food commodities have gone through the roof.
Previous government-imposed lockdowns and the threat of the African swine fever have resulted in the price of pork skyrocketing with a kilo of belly now going for over P300 from P260 before the pandemic.
It is not only pork that has gotten more expensive. The cost of chicken and fish has also risen to exorbitant levels.
It remains to be seen if President Rodrigo Duterte’s executive order mandating price ceilings for pork and chicken or Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia’s ban on hog exports will have any effect on stabilizing prices.
Despite the scenarios of the ongoing pandemic and the flagging economy, the government and the public still have a certain degree of control. The outcome depends on their resolve and will.
The same cannot be said about the weather.
The state’s weather bureau in Mactan has advised people living in the path of tropical storm Auring, especially those living in flood- and landslide-prone areas, to prepare for a very
wet weekend as it is expected to dump 50 to 100 millimeters of rainfall in Cebu and other parts of the Visayas.
Disaster management offices of local government units have been scrambling to minimize damage to properties and prevent the loss of lives. It’s the most they can do.
You know what they say, when it rains it pours.