How Pasay City is fighting the COVID boom

MANILA - How is Pasay City fighting the rising number of COVID-19 infections in the city? 

Pasay Mayor Emi Calixto-Rubiano confirmed 3 of the country's first 5 cases of the South African COVID-19 variant were reported in Pasay.

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"Dito po naunang tumaas talaga ang kaso. Pinaigting po namin ang PIDTR (protection-isolation-detection-treatment-reintegration), aggressive po ang aming contact tracing," she told ABS-CBN's Teleradyo.

(Cases began to rise here. We intensified our PIDTR and made our contact tracing aggressive.)

Aside from the region-wide enhanced community quarantine, some 134 areas or 431 houses in the city are on granular lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19, she said.

Last month, the city traced more than 30,000 contacts of virus patients compared from the previous month's 7,000, according to the mayor.

Pasay has some 300 contact tracers after augmentation from the Department of the Interior and Local Government and cities of Taguig, Parañaque, and Caloocan, said Rubiano.

The city has also begun the inoculation of vulnerable residents or those aged 18 to 59 years old, she added.

The mayor said she has been vaccinated against COVID-19 3 days ago following President Rodrigo Duterte's greenlight to include local chief executives among frontliners.
 
Rubiano, who contracted COVID-19 in early February, said she was eligible for immunization following the recommendation of the vaccine expert panel for coronavirus survivors to be inoculated 2 weeks after recovery.

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In the interview, the mayor said Pasay City will begin the distribution of P348 million COVID-19 assistance to low-income families on Thursday.

The city government posted the list of beneficiaries 2 days ago and has formed a committee to handle the distribution, she said.