CEBU CITY — While other health protocols have been eased up with the steady decline of COVID-19 cases, the curfew that the city has imposed to minimize public movement will remain.
City Councilor Joel Garganera, chief of the city’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC), said the city has no plans yet of lifting the 11:30 p.m. to 4 a.m. curfew to prevent another surge of new COVID-19 infections.
“We don’t want to lose right away what we have gained over the past turbulent months. We have to be circumspect in everything that we do especially with the coming holidays,” Garganera said.
The city has already loosened travel restrictions for fully vaccinated individuals by no longer requiring the presentation of COVID-19 tests. Children are also now allowed in malls as long as they are accompanied by their fully vaccinated parents or guardians.
In the November 3 data of EOC, the city’s active COVID-19 cases have gone down to 214.
The city experienced a third surge of COVID-19 cases in mid-part of this year when the active cases reached as high 6,000.
Aside from its positive effects on stemming the spread of COVID-19, the imposition of curfew has also helped improve the city’s peace and order situation, Garganera said.
“You know, aside from this pandemic, we have to look at it in the eyes also of the police, our peace and order situation. Drastically, we put crime incident also at a low level because of the enforcement of curfew. In addition, our CCTO (Cebu City Transportation Office) reported low incidence of vehicular accidents because also of curfew,” said Garganera.
Garganera said a thorough assessment is needed to determine if it is already timely to lift the curfew.
Deciding when to lift the curfew will also depend on the city’s vaccination campaign.
“We have to assess the next two weeks. We have to work on our vaccination double time as we have to hit our target before the year ends,” said Garganera.
The city has a population of at least one million people and is looking to vaccinate at least 700,000 individuals to achieve herd immunity.
As of November 4, the city has vaccinated 482,001 individuals with 342,840 already fully vaccinated.
The city has also started vaccinating minors aged 12-17.