CALOOCAN CITY, April 6 (PIA) -- The City of Manila has geared up for the second week of enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) by continuing its mass vaccination rollout to qualified priority groups, Manila Mayor Francisco "Isko Moreno" Domagoso said.
Mayor Isko shared this local government's strategy in the city's ongoing fight to curb COVID-19 trajectory, and at the same time admitted that the current lockdown is even more challenging.
"Sa ekonomiya, masama na talaga [ang epekto nito]," he said.
"Pero kung ang pagbabasehan natin ay pagbibigay halaga sa buhay, we should [do it] because [the rate of] infection cannot be denied. [We had] 15,000 the other day and 12,000 yesterday," Domagoso added.
Manila and the rest of the cities and provinces in the NCR Plus bubble were placed under ECQ since March 29. This was done by the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) to curb the rise of COVID-19 cases.
Yet, Domagoso also noted that a total shutdown was not an option especially for the City of Manila since it was where the ports were located.
"If we shut down Manila, lahat kayo magugutom. Sa amin nanggagaling ang produkto. Sa amin binabagsak yung produkto. Kaya during the time na naka-ECQ kami, naka-lockdown kami, may mga areas kaming di namin pwedeng isara katulad ng Pier. 'Yung mga materials o pagkain na nanggagaling sa Central Luzon, Northern Luzon, Southern Luzon, at iba pang lugar ay sa Maynila binabagsak yun [bago] ma-distribute sa ating mga kababayan sa [buong] Metro Manila," he explained.
In light of this, Domagoso said the city government has continued its mass vaccination sessions throughout the ECQ.
In fact, the mayor noted, the city is now fully compliant with the minimum requirement of having 1 percent of its A3 (persons with comorbidities) population vaccinated.
The total number of vaccinated A3 individuals in Manila reached 21,600 over the weekend, he said.
He added that with the A1 (doctors, nurses, and other medical frontliners) and A2 (senior citizens aged 60 and above) categories included, Manila has already vaccinated a total of 43,603 people as of April 4. "If the infection is fast, then the vaccination must be faster.
Prior to the implementation of the ECQ, Manila had already been putting high-risk barangays under granular lockdowns.
Any barangay with 10 or more COVID-19 cases was placed on a four-day lockdown to give the LGU's contact tracers ample time to trace all the individuals who had interactions with the infected subjects. (PIA NCR)
Source: Philippines Information Agency (pia.gov.ph)
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