CEBU CITY - Cebu City on Monday recorded only 11 confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the lowest in the last three months.
This, by far, is the lowest number of new cases since the surge of active cases last April.
Cebu City was reverted to enhanced community quarantine in the middle of June after critical care capacity and the number of cases soared. Now the city has been enjoying its general community quarantine status since August 1.
"The number of positive cases show that quarantine measures in place have helped," said Department of Health 7 spokesperson Dr. Mary Jean Loreche.
The city is also vying for a further downgrade to modified general community quarantine.
The six areas that were placed under a granular lockdown has been lifted after 14 days and no community transmission has taken place.
Authorities also attribute the low number of cases to the contact tracing that they have done.
From less than 50 teams, the city has now expanded to 130 contact tracing teams.
However, with the loosening of quarantine protocols and industries opening up, more workers are stranded in the streets due to lack of public transport.
The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board has already studied the plight of the commuters and has decided to realign some bus routes so that they would be ferried to their destination.
"We can't just add more units, as they will become useless once the rush hours are over," said LTFRB 7 Director Eduard Montealto.
Despite the city's slow opening of its economic activities and the low number of cases, Mayor Edgar Labella has always been keen on reminding the public not to be complacent.
"We have learned our lesson," he added.
With 11 new cases, Cebu City now has 1,724 active cases. DOH-7 data also shows that of the active cases only 529 are admitted in hospitals while rest are in isolation centers or under home quarantine.
A total of 6,895 have already recovered from the virus.
Cebu City, coronavirus, COVID-19, coronavirus Cebu City update, DOH, Department of Health