WITH hospital admissions rising, local officials leading the pandemic response are pushing asymptomatic and mild cases towards barangay isolation centers (BIC), while hoping that private hospitals would again expand their capacity to care for coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) patients.
The Cebu City Police, for its part, is urging eateries and “pungko-pungko” stalls to promote takeouts and discourage customers from “dining in.”
Five more hotels have converted their facilities into isolation centers exclusively for asymptomatic patients, bringing the total number of rooms for Covid-19 to over 300.
These are among the strategies that are being implemented to cope with the increasing Covid-19 cases in both Cebu City and Cebu Province, ease pressure on the health system and curb transmission of the disease.
Department of Health Central Visayas (DOH 7) officials are hard-pressed to come up with measures by Friday, Feb. 26, 2021, or risk having Cebu City and Cebu Province placed again under a more stringent community quarantine level in March.
The new quarantine classifications are expected to be announced before the end of February. Cebu City, Cebu Province, and other highly urbanized as well as component cities in Cebu are under modified general community quarantine (MGCQ), the most lenient form, until Feb. 28.