The Emergency Operations Center (EOC) has seen a downtrend in the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) positivity rate here, with 0.7 percent logged on Tuesday night.

The EOC established by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) reported to the Department of Health (DOH)-Central Visayas only four new positive cases out of 575 test results submitted on Sept. 29.

Councilor Joel Garganera, EOC head and IATF deputy chief implementer for the city, attributed the latest development in Covid-19 surveillance to the efforts of the IATF and the city government in imposing strict quarantine measures.

“All of this was made possible with the help of everyone at the EOC (Emergency Operations Center), the Cebu City government, the IATF, and other partner agencies,” he said in statement posted on Wednesday.

Garganera, meanwhile, prodded the residents to continue wearing masks, washing their hands and maintaining physical distancing to sustain the low positivity rate in October, after President Rodrigo Duterte placed the city under another period of modified general community quarantine.

He said for the past few days, the city recorded only nine, seven, five and three daily positive cases.

“But we will continue to conduct testing and surveillance, now through pooled swab testing by targeting specific group of persons starting with our Carbon market vendors and incoming LSIs (locally stranded individuals) and APORs (authorized person outside of residence)” starting on Wednesday, Garganera said.

Meanwhile, the DOH-7 bulletin said the city also listed 15 patients who have recovered from Covid-19, bringing the total active cases here down to 380.

The DOH-7 reported that 89 percent or 8,928 out of the total 9,981 Covid-19 patients registered in the city since the start of the coronavirus surveillance in February have recovered from the disease.

The recovery rate on Tuesday is two notches higher than the 87 percent registered on Sept. 3.

Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, chief pathologist and Covid-19 spokesperson of DOH-7, said the latest figure should not be a source of complacency which may lead to another surge of Covid-19.

She said the city residents should continue to be mindful with the basic health standards imposed by the DOH and IATF-EID.

Meanwhile, the DOH-7 recorded zero deaths due to Covid-19 in three successive days in the city.

There are 673 total deaths in the city since the start of the community quarantine in March, with the latest single fatality listed last Saturday. (PNA)