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MANILA - Pasig City bought drones to disinfect its streets from COVID-19 and turned motels into quarantine facilities and accommodation for frontline personnel, its mayor Vico Sotto said Thursday.

"Our target is to disinfect every street, big or small, in Pasig City as well as wherever there’s a request for disinfecting," Sotto told ANC's Dateline Philippines.

"All public spaces. The roads, especially the inner roads, we try to go as much as we can and as often as we can."

Two motels lent Pasig their facilities, which can accommodate up to 600 people, Sotto said.

"Right now there’s no cause for alarm but we have to do everything we can to prevent this virus from spreading. One of our initiatives right now is we have set a quarantine center so a motel lent us their facilities," he said.

"We converted a motel into a quarantine facility center and then another motel lent us their facilities for frontliners."

The city, which has a population of around 800,000, has provided some 50 vehicles for the transportation of its health workers. It also deployed bike units after some frontline staff were forced to walk following the suspension of all public mass transport during Luzon's lockdown.

• Pasig City taps bikes for transportation of health workers

The local government also set up sanitation tents in city hall and 2 public hospitals. It also distributed 1,000 disinfecting kits to villages, schools and fire volunteers, according to Sotto.

Pasig is awaiting the delivery of 400,000 food packs for residents, while it allotted 2,000 food packs daily for frontline personnel, Sotto said.

"This is the effort of the city gov’t to make sure they get the nutrition they need. Kailangan malakas ang resistensiya nila (They need to have a strong immune system). We’re also giving them vitamins," he said.

The city is planning to give temporary work to some 12,000 tricycle drivers but for only 5 to 10 days of employment, Sotto said.

"We have to be realistic right now as we plan but we will do everything we can so that the social-economic effects will be mitigated," he said.

All city government employees, regular or contractual, will get their full salaries during the lockdown, Sotto earlier said.

• All Pasig employees to get full pay during COVID-19 quarantine: Vico Sotto