The Cebu City Emergency Operations Center (EOC) has added more personnel and resources for its extraction efforts to meet the rising number of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases here.

Harold Alcontin, Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (CCDRRMO) operations head and in-charge of the extraction team, on Saturday said extraction teams are tasked with pulling out coronavirus positive patients from their houses and transferring them to isolation centers.

“Doing these would help lessen the possibility of transmission to the household members,” Alcontin said in a press statement.

Also, the house with a positive case would be locked down and household members have to undergo swab tests.

CCDRRMO has augmented an additional 20 personnel for the extraction team. The personnel and ambulances helped fast-tracked the transfer of the positive cases.

Aside from additional manpower, 10 more barangay isolation centers (BICs) with 762 bed-capacity have been opened to accommodate new Covid-19 cases.

More resources had helped the Cebu City EOC address the spike in the number of infections.

The challenge remains that the majority of the individuals who tested positive for Covid-19 in Cebu City do not cooperate with the authorities especially during extraction procedures.

The EOC extraction team had to contend with the sudden spike in positive cases last Feb. 10 when 250 Covid patients needed to be transferred to isolation centers.

The EOC had been given until this weekend to extract all the backlogs by Mel Feliciano, the chief implementer of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Disease (IATF-MEID) in the Visayas.

Among the barangays with double-digit positive cases in just a day are Tisa, Guadalupe, Labangon, Lahug, Punta Princesa, Mabolo, and Capitol Site.

As of February 12, Cebu City recorded a total of 14,160 Covid-19 cases since March of 2020. Currently, there are 2,671 active cases and a total of 711 deaths.

Out of the active cases, 413 are isolated in BICs, 396 are in NOAH (New Normal Oasis for Adaptation and a Home) isolation facility, 155 are in Cebu City Quarantine Center, 60 are staying in Bayanihan Cebu IEC Field Center while others are staying in Department of Health-accredited hotels and pension houses. (PNA)