Residents of Cebu have started to cooperate with health protocols that helped downgrade the city to modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ), according to presidential spokesman Harry Roque.

Roque said President Duterte received the latest update on Cebu's health situation from the national task force during a meeting on the government's efforts to fight the pandemic last Wednesday.

"Iyong obserbasyon niya sa kanyang mga kababayan sa Cebu, kinakailangang mag-cooperate pero ang balita naman sa kanya ng NTF eh mukha naman pong nakiki-cooperate na ang kaniyang mga kababayan sa Cebu kaya nga po napababa na iyong numero (He made an observation to his fellowmen in Cebu that they must cooperate but NTF has informed him that it seems the people of Cebu are cooperating that that's why the number has dropped)," he said during a televised press briefing Thursday.

Roque, however, cited the need for the fatality rate of Cebu to further decrease as he appealed to the residents to continue to follow quarantine measures. 

He urged the public to stay indoors if possible, wear a mask, keep a safe distance from others, and frequently wash hands, to avoid coronavirus infection.

"'Yung mga vulnerable kinakailangan po talagang maging homeliners (Those vulnerable must really become homeliners)," he said.

Roque said young and old people as well as those with existing health conditions should avoid leaving their house as much as possible, warning they might end up in the fatality count.

"Ang mga vulnerable, tapatan na po, kapag lumabas kayo kasama na kayo sa death, sa mortality data. Sigurado na po iyan dahil iyan na po ang napatunayan natin sa Espanya, Sa France, sa Italya, talagang wala po kalaban-laban ang mga seniors (Let's be frank. If those vulnerable leave your home, you will be included in the death, mortality data. That's certain because it has been proven in Spain, France, Italy that the seniors are helpless)," he said.

He assured the nation that the government would sustain expanded testing, tracing, and treatment efforts to slow down the transmission of the disease. Local government units have also been empowered to implement localized lockdowns in their communities to curb the outbreak.

Duterte has allowed Cebu City to shift from enhanced community quarantine to the less stringent MECQ from July 16 to July 31.

Lapu-Lapu City, Mandaue City, Talisay City, and the municipalities of Minglanilla and Consolacion, on the other hand, have remained under general community quarantine until the end of the month.

Last month, the President sent Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Roy Cimatu to Cebu City to oversee the government's coronavirus response amid the surge of cases in the area.

He has also remind residents of Cebu to follow the health protocols after lamenting they became "too confident and too complacent."