By Kris Enriquez
LAPU-LAPU CITY, Cebu — Short of tagging the health department of being paranoid, Team Abtik congressional aspirant Junex Doronio on Thursday lambasted the Department of Health (DOH) for issuing a “baseless” statement that this highly urbanized city could be escalated to alert level 3 from under alert level 2 after posting a positive two-week growth rate in COVID-19 infections.
Doronio noted that Dr. Jean Loreche, chief pathologist of the Department of Health in Region 7 (DOH-7) who also serves as Lapu-Lapu City’s consultant, has expressed disappointment with the earlier statement of the DOH central office in the National Capital Region. “The DOH central office should have consulted first with its branch in Region 7 before issuing any statement that will only cause confusion and unnecessary panic,” he said.
“They are supposed to be professional and responsible, right?” The DOH-7 has maintained that COVID-19 no longer poses a grave threat in this city.
“The number of cases is down. There are no Delta variants. Hospitals have downsized their bed allocation for COVID as there are very few COVID patients. TTMFs and isolation facilities have no more admission. Vaccination rate is high,” Loreche said.
However, on November 10 the city had 11 additional new cases, but most of the days it registered only a single case or two.
On Monday, November 22, it even logged zero case. But ironically on the same day, DOH spokesperson, Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire hinted that Lapu-Lapu City may be escalated to alert level 3 from under alert level 2 after posting a positive two-week growth rate in COVID-19 infections.
“Metrics for Lapu-Lapu may require escalation from alert level 2 to alert level 3,” Vergeire said.
As this developed, Doronio also assailed the “no vaccine card, no entry” in malls being enforced by the city government. “Hasol lang sa mga tawo (It’s just annoying to the people),” he quipped.
Effective Thursday, November 25, unvaccinated persons can no longer enter malls in this city unless they undergo and pass a rapid antigen test. Vaccinated persons who have no vaccination cards can also not get inside the malls.
