It’s well and good that the Inter-agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) reconsidered its earlier decision to place Cebu Province under modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ), the second most stringent community quarantine level, to general community quarantine (GCQ) effective Aug. 1 up to Aug. 15. I don’t know what made the IATF reconsider its decision. Maybe they were convinced by the explanation of Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia in her appeal.
But why only Cebu Province? Why did the IATF not include Cebu City? Who drafted the letter of appeal of Cebu City? Mike Rama? Basin nagtuyok-tuyok to sama sa iyang inistoryahan. Maybe Mike did not cite specific science-based evidence and present figures to convince the IATF to reconsider its decision. If the hospitalization and health care facilities utilization rate has reached its critical level, some of the patients are not from Cebu City alone. Some of them came from the province.
In its Resolution 130-D released last Aug. 1, the IATF said that “upon the recommendation of the screening and evaluation committee, the IATF approves the following risk-level classification of Provinces, highly urbanized cities (HUCs) and independent component cities (ICCs) effective immediately. The Province of Cebu shall be placed under GCQ until Aug. 15, 2021, without prejudice to its reclassification as may be warranted and the declaration of localized enhanced community quarantine (GCQ) in critical areas, and with the observance and implementation of the following heightened restrictions.”
The IATF resolution did not categorically explain in its resolution why it reconsidered its decision. The IATF just went on enumerating what are allowable and prohibited acts under the GCQ classification. Does this mean that the IATF made a mistake in its early decision placing Cebu Province under MECQ together with the tri-cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu? And why it only reconsidered the province? Why did it not include the three highly urbanized and independent cities?
In his Facebook post, IATF consultant Dr. Edsel Maurice Salvana explained why they recommended that Cebu be placed under MECQ. He said “when making recommendation on quarantine levels, we should always look at disaggregated data. We very quietly went to Cebu towards the end of June to warn them that lax border control would result in a large Delta spike.” (Note: He did not specifically mention Cebu City or province).
He added, “We recommended putting many areas in the country under ECQ when Delta started showing up in July, areas that were already for escalation anyway because of increasing HCUR and other parameters. National Capital Region (NCR) does not look too bad yet, that is why there were some room to prepare. The biggest objective of this impending ECQ is to vaccinate as many people as possible in NCR. We are only tempering the anticipated increase in Delta to protect as many people as possible. There will still be some sort of large increase over baseline. But if most people are vaccinated, then our hospitals will be able to manage and very few people will die.” (NCR will be placed under ECQ effective Aug. 6 up to Aug. 20).
Well, based on my observation, the classification of the tri-cities under MECQ is only in name. The truth of the matter is that nothing significant has changed. What I mean is that the movement of people are the same like when we were under modified general community quarantine (MGCQ). Establishments are still open and we don’t know if they comply with the allowed capacity. Public transportation are still allowed to operate and we don’t know if drivers and conductors are complying with the mayor’s executive order on “no overloading policy.” Nobody is monitoring. Though the police has been conducting random checkpoints and patrols, they are not in the streets 24 hours. Curfew hours has been totally implemented.
There isn’t even border control. Under the Omnibus guidelines of the IATF, outgoing and incoming passenger vessels are suspended except those ferrying elements of the armed forces, police, emergency personnel and food supplies. Salons, beauty parlors and barbershop, internet cafes, which are supposedly prohibited under MECQ, are still in operation. To make the story short, Cebu City is not complying to the letter the policies and guidelines set by the IATF in areas under MECQ.
So, if this is the same situation prior to the MECQ, how can we contain the spread of the virus especially this dreaded Delta variant? What does MECQ entail? Strictly stay at home for everyone, except for Apor (authorized persons outside of residence), the rule says. But are the people following this? Metro Manila mayors termed this as “flexible or hybrid MECQ” when Metro Manila was placed in the same classification last May. If this situation will go on, expect an enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) declaration after Aug. 15 because I can foresee that Covid-19 cases will be rising. Believe me.