Cebu City to Start Pre-GCQ Strategic Testing

The massive testing to acquire a scientific basis in lifting the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) here will start on Monday (May 4), Mayor Edgardo Labella said Thursday.

In an advisory, Labella bared that six of the 10-day collection schedule, or from May 4 to 9, will focus on collecting swab samples in 78 barangays, with the exception of Labangon and Luz villages where massive testing was already done.

The city has 80 barangays, with 58 in the urban areas and 22 in the highlands.

In strategic testing, Dr. Jaime Bernadas, Department of Health (DOH)-Region 7 director, said 10 percent of the total number of households per barangay of the cities of Cebu, Mandaue, and Lapu-Lapu will be tested using coronavirus disease (Covid-19) rapid diagnostic test.

The remaining four days or on May 10 to 13 will be devoted to retest to earlier tested positive for Covid-19, he said.

On the first day of retesting on May 10, however, three upland barangays will still be subjected to the swab sample-taking.

Based on the 10-day extraction schedule, swab specimen collection will start in 11 barangays in the south district of the city. These are Inayawan, Cogon, Basak-San Nicolas, Basak-Pardo, Suba, Bulacao, Mambaling, Duljo, Punta Princesa, Kinasang-an, and Tisa.

On May 5, about 12 villages in the north district (Capitol Site, Kalubihan, Sambag 1, Zapatera, Kamagayan, Parian Kamputhaw, Cogon-Ramos, Sta. Cruz, Sambag 2, Lorega-San Miguel and Day-as) and two from the south district (Sawang Calero and Caklamba) will be visited by the extraction team from the Cebu City Health Department (CCHD) for swab collection.

On May 6, barangays Carreta, Tinago, Tejero, Sto. Niño, Kasambagan, Mabolo, Pahina-Central, T. Padilla and Hipodromo in the north district will be visited for specimen collection along with south district villages of San Nicolas-Proper, Pardo, Guadalupe and Quiot.

The extraction team will focus on the north district on May 7 of the testing activity. The urban villages that will be visited are Apas, Banilad, Kalunasan, Lahug, Talamban, Pahina-San Nicolas, and San Jose along with the upland barangays of Budlaan and Busay.

The south district mountain barangays of Toong, Pamutan, Buot, Sinsin, Sudlon 1 and Sudlon 2, Bonbon, Babag, Binaliw, Guba, and Sapangdaku, as well as the coastal villages of Pasila and Ermita, will be the area of collection on May 8, with the inclusion of city center village of San Antonio.

Residents in about eight rural villages in north district (Taptap, Adlaon, Cambinocot, Paril, Lusaran, Malubog, and Pulangbato) and south district upland barangays (Tabunan, Tagbao, and Buhisan) as well as urban barangays (San Roque, Bacayan, and Pit-os) in north district will be subjected to swab collection on May 9.

On the first day of retesting on May 10, the remaining three upland villages of Agsungot, Mabili and Pung-ol Sibugay will be included in the specimen collection.

“The result of this strategic massive testing will become our basis in crafting policies come May 15 which is the day that the extended enhanced community quarantine will end,” Labella said in Cebuano.

The testing is part of the “Project Balik Buhay” led by Secretary Michael Lloyd Dino, head of the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas and the DOH-Central Visayas.

Bernadas said the mayors in the cities of Cebu, Mandaue, and Lapu-Lapu took the initiative in collaborating with Dino, his office and the private sector in coming with an evidence-based plan to transition from ECQ to general community quarantine after May 15. (PNA)