National and regional members of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID), local government officials, and representatives of the business sector gathered here today to discuss a more focused and intensified strategy in addressing the COVID-19 situation in the city.
Present during the gathering were IATF co-chairman and Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, National Task Force Against COVID-19 Chairman and Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, Secretary of the Interior and Local Government Eduardo Año, NTF Chief Implementer and Presidential Peace Adviser Carlito Galvez Jr., and newly-installed overseer of Cebu City’s COVID-19 response and DENR Secretary Roy Cimatu.
Also present were Cebu Governor Gwen Garcia, Cebu City Mayor Edward Labella, and Talisay Mayor Gerald Gullas Jr.
Cimatu, who was appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte to lead the implementation of the national government’s COVID-19 measures in the city, is optimistic that Cebu City will soon win the battle against the deadly disease.
“We have good leaders and I am very optimistic that we will be able to bring down the problem as quick as we can,” he shared.
Galvez said the NTF COVID-19 has provided additional medical supplies and equipment to the city to support its medical frontliners.
The Task Force turned over to the local government 10,000 N95 masks, 2,000 sets of Level-4 PPEs, 3 PRC machines, and 10,000 Sansure test kits.
Lorenzana reminded NTF and IATF members to not lose sight of the government’s main goal.
“We shall not lose sight of why we’re here. That’s to defeat COVID-19. Kahit anong gawin natin, ‘yan ang ating objective. Kung hindi natin mapigilan ang pag akyat ng cases, then we’ll all be failures,” he said. (National Task Force Against COVID19)
