For the past two weeks the city government of Manila has been doing 24/7 monitoring and intensified contact tracing in a bid to curb the recent spike in the number of COVID-19 cases.
“[We are checking] if rules are being implemented properly by enforcement agencies and if barangays are doing their responsibility to contain infections,” Manila Mayor Francisco ‘Isko Moreno’ Domagoso said.
The local chief executive stated, “fully equipped logistically ang City of Manila because we’ve been preparing for this kind of situation — the worst possible scenario. So we have enough people [serving as] contact tracers.”
When asked about the possible cause of the capital city’s surge in COVID-19 cases, Domagoso replied, “there must have been neglect along the way. Whoever [is responsible], we don’t want to point fingers anymore.”
The City of Manila has been implementing granular lockdowns, restricting the movements in barangays that have the most number of new COVID-19 infections. Last week, the areas that were locked down for four days were Barangays 351 and 725, as well as the Malate Bayview Mansion and the Hop Inn Hotel in Barangay 699.
This week, the following areas are under four-day lockdown:
Barangay 185 Zone 16 (Tondo 2)
Barangay 374 Zone 38 (Sta. Cruz)
Barangay 521 Zone 52 (Sampaloc)
Barangay 628 Zone 63 (Sta. Mesa)
Barangay 675 Zone 74 (Paco)
Barangay 847 Zone 92 (Pandacan)
Mayor Domagoso pointed out that granular lockdowns help the city’s contact tracers do their work quickly and efficiently. Citing the outcome of last week’s granular lockdown, he revealed, “we tested those in the community and sa lalong madaling panahon natagpuan yung iba pang infected (at the soonest time possible, those infected were found). There were about 25 of them.”
The mayor explained that for every infected person, tracers are able to locate an average of 11 to 15 people who came into close contact with him or her.
Aside from implementing granular lockdowns, ensuring the observance of health protocols, and contact tracing, the City Government of Manila is also continuing the delivery of food boxes as part of its COVID-19 Food Security Program (FSP).
The barangays under lockdown are prioritized when it comes to the delivery of the FSP food boxes.
“We have a plan to really mitigate the socioeconomic impact of COVID-19…. Because there is also an economic repercussion in every policy that we introduce,” he concluded. – Louisa Erispe
