Cebu City Residents Can Go Out on Sundays Starting Aug. 9

Residents here will be allowed to leave their homes on Sundays starting August 9, Mayor Edgardo Labella said Friday.

Labella released on Thursday an executive order amending the schedule of quarantine pass use to include Sundays, apart from the three days of the week residents are allowed to leave their homes for essential goods and services.

In the original policy, residents of 80 barangays here were divided into two groups and were assigned control numbers aside from the QR (quick response) code on the bond-paper size quarantine passes.

Quarantine passes with QR codes ending in odd numbers are allowed to go out on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, while those ending in even numbers and zero are permitted to go out on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.

Under the new order, however, all quarantine pass bearers can go out on Sundays regardless of the ending of their control numbers.

He reiterated that “quarantine passes duly issued by the city government shall be presented by household members who wish to go out of their homes to access basic necessities and services.”

“Authorized persons outside residence under the IATF-EID (Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases) guidelines, as well as issuances by the Philippine National Police, are exempted from this requirement,” Labella added.

He asked the residents to bear with the city government in implementing the quarantine pass despite the general community quarantine (GCQ) status in the city, noting that “this is for our own good” amid the ongoing health crisis.

Labella reminded them to observe the minimum health standards required by the Department of Health (DOH), saying that the mandatory wearing of face mask and physical distancing can help prevent community transmission of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

“If you don’t have something important (to do) outside, please stay in your homes,” he said.

Meanwhile, Labella reminded foreigners residing or visiting the city to observe its rules and health protocols.

This came after quarantine enforcement personnel, headed by Raquel Arce apprehended a Canadian national for going out on the street without a quarantine pass.

“When we are in Canada, we observe the rules of Canada. So when you are in the Philippines, you observe the rules in the Philippines,” Arce told the Canadian. (PNA)