No second wave of COVID-19 cases in Cebu City —DOH-7 spox

The Department of Health (DOH) in Region 7 has denied that Cebu City is already experiencing a second wave of COVID-19 cases despite the surge in its number.

"Right now, I would not say that we are in a second wave," said Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, spokesperson for DOH-7, in a report by GMA Regional TV Cebu on Unang Balita on Tuesday. "What I would say is we have a surge of cases."

Loreche was reportedly reacting to a statement by OCTA Research Group regarding the significant increase in COVID-19 cases in the city.

Loreche was quoted as saying that the OCTA group only noted the number of cases in the city and not the capability of the city's health facilities to take care of COVID-19 patients.

According to Loreche, bed allocation in hospitals for COVID-19 cases in the city has not even reached 25%.

"We respect that, however, the problem with that statement that they have come up with is hindi siya holistic," said Loreche.

For his part, Cebu City Councilor Joel Garganera said: "Yes, we can say na second wave na because it's three digits. But then again, hindi pa rin matawag; makikita naman sa parameters."

In its report released last week, OCTA said Cebu province, including Cebu City, is now a cause of “serious concern” after a surge in coronavirus infections pushed the reproduction number of the virus to 1.57.

Meanwhile, the DOH is looking into the possibility of a local mutation of the coronavirus following the speedy increase of COVID-19 cases in the city.

The regional office is set to send samples to the DOH main office for gneomic sequencing. The samples will be from children since most of the new cases were kids.

"Kung mas marami siyang nahahawaan, mas maraming posibilidad na magbabagong anyo siya kasi these are changes in the way they are in their sequence, doon sa kanilang genetic material," Leroche said. —KBK, GMA News