Marikina City Mayor Marcelino Teodoro highlighted the city’s aggressive contact tracing efforts to stem the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
“Ang isang ginagawa sa Marikina, aktibo po kami dun sa contact tracing, at based dun sa contact tracing na establish namin ‘yung tamang data at dun namin binabase kung kailangan i-lockdown o i-quarantine and isang area (Marikina is active in contact tracing. The data we gather will determine whether we will place an area on lockdown or quarantine),” Teodoro said in a press briefing Monday.
“Hindi tayo naglo-lockdown ngayon on a larger scale dahil nakikita natin yung epekto nito sa ekonomiya natin kaya nga mahalaga ‘yung mga tamang datos na meron tayo (We do not lockdown on a larger scale because of its impact on our economy that is why we it is important that we have the right data),” he added.
Teodoro said they have adopted the contact tracing method employed by Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong where every contact tracer could trace over 30 close contacts of an infected patient.
Teodoro said Marikina initially had only three contact tracing teams which has since increased to 10 teams, further enhancing the city’s tracing capability.
“Sa Marikina, ang kaibahan nga lang namin sa ibang LGU ay meron kaming testing capacity kaya nalalaman din namin agad dun sa nate-trace namin kung sino yung positive o negative (The advantage we have in Marikina from other LGUs is that we have testing capacity that is why we know who is positive and negative),” the mayor added.
“Kung positive naman, naaisolate natin kaagad siya at naibibigay yung supportive medical treatment na kailangan kaya nakukuha namin yung tamang ratio pati ‘yung kung paano i-expand ‘yung health facilities natin pati yung treatment and monitoring facilities (If the person tests positive, we isolate him immediately and provide the needed medical treatment that is why we get the right ratio, as well as how to expand our health facilities, treatment, and monitoring facilities),” he added.
Marikina City has built its own molecular diagnostics capacity equipped with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) capable of detecting the COVID-19 virus.
Teodoro said the city is capable of conducting up to 800 tests per day. At one point, he said they are able to conduct 1,000 tests a day following an aggressive contact tracing.
During the virtual conference, the mayor said they recently conducted 2,456 tests in a span of three days. Of this number, 68 have tested positive for COVID-19 and were immediately placed under isolation.