Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia meets with Cebu province mayors in a virtual meeting to plan contingency measures as Covid cases continue to increase in the province. | PIO

The Provincial Government of Cebu may implement granular lockdowns if new Covid-19 cases continue to increase as some areas are already facing surges attributed to the Delta variant.

Governor Gwen Garcia told mayors of the province Monday that the first line of containment is placing households under lockdown.

“I give the discretion to the mayors to identify (which houses) because houses might be distant from each other,” Garcia said in a mix of English and Bisaya.

Garcia has also ordered reactivation of temporary treatment monitoring facilities in anticipation of the increase of Covid-19 infections.

The governor said local government units (LGUs) will hire one doctor and two nursing aides or midwives to man these centers while the capitol pays for their compensation.

Garcia said LGUs should hire nursing aids or midwives since nurses are needed in hospitals, where there is a shortage of medical workers attending to severe cases of Covid.

The highly urbanized cities of Cebu, Mandaue, and Lapulapu have adopted the capitol’s “no air-conditioning” policy for all public utility vehicles as an added precaution against the contagion.

As of Monday, Cebu City leads the region with the highest Covid infections with 269 new cases, followed by the province of Cebu with 187, Mandaue City with 124 and Lapulapu City with 54. Ryan Sorote