Cebu City again reported no COVID-19 fatality Friday, October 9, maintaining it zero-death streak so far this month. This was also the longest period when no one died of the coronavirus disease here.

This streak is a stark contrast to the alarming death rate at the height of the outbreak in June which had 370 fatalities that month.

At that time, the surge in new SARS-CoV-2 cases in the city prompted the reimposition of a severe lockdown – or enhanced community quarantine. 

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Cebu City also reported Friday 17 additional recoveries, bringing the active case count to 337 out of 10,082 total cases. 

In addition to zero deaths, almost 50% of Cebu City’s barangays – or 41 total – reported no new active cases for the past 14 days.

But there was one detail which worried city officials.

More than half of the 31 infections reported between October 7 and 8 were new cases, or not a result of contact tracing efforts.

“This means there are areas and sources of infection that were revealed that these cases came from medical checks for travel or work requirements,” Cebu City COVID-19 Operations Head Joel Garganera told reporters.

“This also means people are getting complacent. We must remember the virus is still present. Let us continue to observe health and safety protocols,” he added.

The city government also urged residents to avail of the free testing in public clinics or at private facilities here, even if they do not have symptoms.

“Let’s maximize what we have so our data will be more accurate and help in defeating this virus. We can never defeat this virus if we allow ourselves to get complacent.”

On Friday, the city completed its pooled testing of over 2,000 vendors and would release the results on Tuesday, October 13. 

So far, only two of those vendors tested positive. – Rappler.com