6 sitios in 5 barangays have been placed under hard lockdown, Cebu City Mayor Edgar Labella announced on Saturday evening, July 25.

The areas that will be placed on lockdown are:

• Sitio Eyha, Guadalupe;
• Balaga Drive to Sitio Cekalco, Labangon;
• Tuada Compound, Tisa;
• Sitio San Isidro, Quiot;
• Abellanosa Compound, Quiot;
• C Mina Extension, Mabolo.

Residents of the areas on lockdown would not be allowed to leave their homes except for medical emergencies. Food and other essential items would be brought to them by city government personnel.

According to the EO, the lockdown will last for a period of 3 to 14 days. During lockdown, health workers will do contact tracing based on positive cases identified in the area. Those found positive would be moved to a quarantine if they do not have symptoms. Those who already show symptoms would be moved to a hospital with a COVID-19 ward.

The date of the lifting of lockdown would depend on how long it takes for infected residents in the area to recover from the disease. The lifting of the street-level lockdown would have to go through the approval of the Regional Inter-Agency Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases (RIATF).

While Cebu City was previously named a COVID-19 hot spot because of the spike in confirmed SARS-CoV-2 cases, the Department of Health noted that number new infections dwindled after the last enhanced community quarantine from July 1 and 16.

According to the University of the Philippines OCTA Research, the replication rate (R0) in Cebu City has already gone down to 1.14 from a high of 2 back in June.

This means the spread of the virus has slowed down to an average of one patient infecting one other person, from previous high of infecting two others.

Cebu City reported 111 new coronavirus cases on Friday evening, June 24. The city now has a total of 8,567 coronavirus cases, of whom 4,847 have recovered.

The Philippines has over 78,000 total coronavirus cases as of Saturday, July 25. – Rappler.com