Interior Secretary Eduardo Año clarified on Friday that only Cebu City, and not the entire Central Visayas region, has been placed back on the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) by President Rodrigo Duterte.
A now-unpublished report had said that Health Undersecretary Rosario Vergeire had declared that the Central Visayas region was to revert to ECQ over rising Covid-19 cases.
“No, that is not true. Hindi ang entire Central Visayas, ang Cebu City lang ang ECQ, at Talisay City ng Cebu province ang nasa MECQ (modified enhanced community quarantine)” Año said over a DZBB interview.
He added that some areas in Region 7 had been effective in managing their Covid-19 responses, but opted to stay under general community quarantine (GCQ) as precaution.
“As for other areas in Central Visayas, they are doing well in terms of managing the situation. They just opted to stay under GCQ because they want to limit movement of people,” Año said.
President Rodrigo Duterte put Cebu City back on ECQ following the rise in the doubling rate of Covid-19 cases in the area.
Talisay City, a component city of Cebu province, was also placed under MECQ for the same reason.
Central Visayas has recorded 4,591 coronavirus cases as of June 16. John Ezekiel J. Hirro