Mayor Labella Orders Massive Street Disinfection

Amid the rising number of positive cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) here, Mayor Edgardo Labella on Monday ordered the massive disinfection of all city roads.

“We will see to it that while the enhanced community quarantine has already been in effect since Saturday, we will continue disinfecting our streets in Cebu City,” Labella said in a press conference in his office.

Labella said he ordered lawyer John Jigo Dacua, chief of the general services department of Cebu City Hall, to supervise the massive disinfection activity in the entire city.

He said the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) in Cebu is helping the city government in disinfecting the thoroughfares.

Labella’s order came after the Department of Health-Central Visayas Center for Health Development reported two new positive cases of Covid-19, bringing the total cases in this city to 20.

Covid-19 case bulletin number 3 posted as of 5 p.m. on March 29, said the Subnational Laboratory at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) tested 86 suspected cases of coronavirus.

“Seven specimens were tested positive for Covid-19, the remaining 79 tested negative. Two of the positive tests were repeat of old confirmed cases, five are new individuals added to the total confirmed cases,” said DOH-7 regional director, Dr. Jaime Bernadas, in a statement posted on its official website.

Bernadas said one confirmed case has succumbed to the infection. He said Patient CV 25-CC died around 6 p.m. on Saturday (March 28, 2020).

“We are still waiting for the details of this new mortality,” he said.

As of 5 p.m. Sunday, DOH-7 registered 30 total cases of Covid-19 in Central Visayas, with three fatalities and one recovered patient.

Bernadas said the provinces of Bohol and the highly urbanized cities of Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue have no additional cases. Bohol still has one case, but the province of Cebu already has two cases from original case discovered last Saturday, two in Lapu-Lapu and one in Mandaue. Cebu City’s number of cases is not included in the province’s tally.

Siquijor remains Covid-19-free as of this writing but Negros Oriental has two additional cases which brings to four the number of positive cases in that province.

The VCMMC-Subnational Laboratory in the Visayas has already conducted test for 357 specimens from both private and public health facilities in the region. (PNA)