Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. recognized the COVID-19 response of Cebu City after private hospitals recorded no admission in their intensive care units (ICU) and emergency rooms (ER) in recent weeks.
During the weekly "Talk to the People" public address of President Duterte Monday night, Sept. 20, Galvez said the combined daily COVID-19 admission in all private hospitals in Cebu City "continued to decline" while the daily number of recovered patients being discharged from the hospitals "exceed the admissions."
"Magandang balita po 'yon, Mr. President, kasi kapag once na bumaba po ang Cebu, baka bababa na rin po 'yong Metro Manila and other parts of the country (It is a good news, Mr. President, because once Cebu's drop, the Metro Manila and other parts of the country might also follow)," he said.
Citing the data submitted by 16 private hospitals in Cebu City, Galvez said there were no patients awaiting for admission in the ICU and ER "in the past weeks."
However, there were 13 regular COVID-19 patients that remained in the ER of the private hospitals in Cebu City.
He said the combined Capacity Utilization Rate (CUR) of all private hospitals in Cebu City was at 40.1 percent as of Sept. 18. Out of the total 831 beds allocated for COVID-19 patients, 333 beds were currently being utilized while 498 beds were still available.
"There were zero ICU COVID ER patients already," Galvez noted.
In August, Cebu City reportedly recorded around 300 to 400 daily cases but it has since went down to 100 to 200 cases in early September, according to the LGU's Emergency Operations Center (EOC) data.
The number of deaths also reportedly went down by half, from 20 daily to 10 during the same period.
Nonetheless, the vaccine czar reiterated his appeal to the public to always observe minimum public health standards such as the wearing of face mask and face shield, and practice social distancing.
"Kailangan lang po talaga na sundin po natin 'yong protocols na binigay po ng IATF (We just really need to obey the protocls issued by the IATF)," he said.