STARTING next week, each municipality or component city in Cebu Province may be independently deescalated from Alert Level 2 status to Alert Level 1 anytime once it meets the requirements.This was what Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, chief pathologist of the Department of Health in Central Visayas and spokesperson of the Visayas Vaccination Operations Center, said Thursday, March 17, 2022, two days after the latest announcement of deescalation among the local government units (LGUs) for the March 16 to 31 period.During her briefer, Loreche said the move was announced by the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases during their meeting Thursday, provided that each LGU meets the four requirements set.While LGUs must maintain low coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases and less than 50 percent healthcare capacity utilization rates, Loreche said 70 percent of their respective total eligible populations must also be fully vaccinated along with 68 percent of their senior citizens.“Pwede na po siyang ma deescalate to Alert Level 1. Hindi na hihintayin ang provincial-wide numbers,” she said, adding that she is pushing for the deescalation of other LGUs that already met the requirements, particularly the vaccination ratio for the total eligible population and for senior citizens.Loreche said the changes in alert level status will no longer be every 15 days, as once the LGU meets the requirements, its status can already be changed as soon as the IATF approves it amid their daily meetings.Loreche noted that in Metro Cebu, Talisay City had already exceeded the vaccination ratio requirement for senior citizens with 78.48 percent while Minglanilla and Cordova were also at 80.94 percent and 75.23 percent, respectively.Cebu City’s status was already deescalated to Alert Level 1 for March 16 to 31.The data for Mandaue City and Lapu-Lapu City are currently being reconciled with the Department of Information and Communications Technology as Mandaue City has vaccinated 91.64 percent of its senior citizens, while Lapu-Lapu City had also fully vaccinated about 64.4 percent of its senior citizens as of March 16.The chief pathologist, however, said the City of Naga and the towns of Consolacion and Liloan, still had to work harder since only 53.11 percent, 51.33 percent and 52.02 percent of their senior citizens, respectively, had been vaccinated.