CEBU CITY — Three other communities in the village of Luz here are emerging as coronavirus infection hot spots aside from Sitio Zapatera, which now has 130 COVID-19 cases.

On Sunday (April 26), the city health department said the virus has infected at least 13 more residents of Sitio Santo Nino, eight in Sitio San Vicente and one in Sitio Lubi. These communities are all at the village of Luz, which now has 160 COVID-19 cases.

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Another village in the city, Labangon, was also emerging as a coronavirus hot spot as it recorded 26 new COVID-19 cases.

Mayor Edgar Labella attributed the rise in number of cases to what he said was selective mass testing being done around the city.

In his daily report, Director Jaime Bernadas of the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH) said most of the new infections were those of close contacts of previous carriers.

In Lapu-Lapu City, three people had been declared negative of the virus after recovering from COVID-19.

“These people have already cleared the virus from their system,” Bernadas said.

The three who recovered included a 44-year-old female, a 48-year-old male and a 42 -year-old male.

Bernadas said while these people had already recovered they were advised to continue isolation for another two weeks at home.

As of Monday (April 2), Cebu Island has 518 COVID-19 cases with eight deaths.

Most of the cases came from Cebu City with 476, followed by Lapu-Lapu City with 28, Mandaue City with 11 and Cebu province with three.

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Brig. Gen. Albert Ignatius Ferro, Central Visayas police chief, said police would be stricter in implementing lockdown because of the continuing increase in COVID-19 cases.

In an online press conference, Ferro said police are not letting their guard down to make sure that those who are not allowed to go outside remained at home.

He said aside from social distancing rules, police would be stricter in enforcing rules requiring the wearing of masks.

More policemen were sent out on the streets of the city following the surge of COVID-19 cases at the village of Luz.

Ferro said the deployment of policemen would be heaviest in communities that are total lockdowns and areas with rising numbers of COVID-19 cases.

At least 9,403 lockdown violations had been recorded by police in Central Visayas, most of which are in Cebu City.

Police made at least 817 arrests and charged 1,171 people with disobedience to persons of authority.

Underaged violators were given lectures on why lockdowns were needed and were shown video lessons.

Ferro, however, said he expected lockdown violations to decline because of heavy police presence.

Edited by TSB

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