MANILA - Caloocan City Mayor Oscar Malapitan on Friday expressed surprise at the Department of Health’s (DOH) report that the city had the most number of COVID-19 new infections.
“For the past few weeks, single digit lang ang nareregister,” Malapitan said.
The DOH on Thursday reported 424,297 total COVID-19 cases, including 1,392 newly-confirmed infections.
Caloocan City led the areas in the country with the most number of new infections after logging 77 additional cases, followed by the provinces of Cavite and Laguna with 73 each, Davao City with 62, and the province of Quezon with 60.
But Malapitan said the city recorded a total of 12,506 COVID-19 cases, of which 12,047 have recovered and 350 died.
“As of yesterday, 109 ang active cases so nagulat ako na marami kami dito sa Caloocan,” Malapitan said.
The local government unit, he said, has several programs to combat the virus.
“I tap the police para mag-iikot sila, nagroronda sila sa loob kasi if you will notice sa labas, naka facemask lahat ng tao pero sa looban nandoon hindi gumagamit ng face mask,” he said.
Meanwhile, the mayor said they are watching out for a possible spike in COVID-19 infection as Christmas nears.
“Lahat kaming Metro Manila mayors 'yan ang ina-anticipate namin. 'Yan ang aming binabantayan. Paulit-ulit sinasabi ko na sa barangay officials na wala tayong Christmas party, bawal ang Christmas party at ang mga caroling pinagbabawal din,” he said on ANC’s Matters of Fact.
“Kailangan sumunod sila, otherwise huhulihin namin sila,” he said.
“Sa ngayon, maganda numbers namin, very proud nga ako dahil napababa namin nang husto ito. Wala kaming balak mag lockdown at wala kaming binabalak na ilockdown ngayon,” he said.
Oscar Malapitan, Caloocan City, COVID-19 pandemic, Caloocan City COVID-19 updates, ANC Top, ANC Exclusives, ANC Matters of Fact, DOH