San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora said Sunday general community quarantine (GCQ) should remain in Metro Manila.
“For me as mayor of San Juan, my recommendation to the Metro Manila Council is that we stay at GCQ,” Zamora told reporters during the commemoration of the 124th anniversary of Pinaglabanan Day.
“For me, the downgrade in our quarantine status should not be done hastily. The important thing is to have a good balance of the economy and the health of the people and we are doing that under GCQ,” he added.
On August 18, the National Capital Region and the provinces of Bulacan. Cavite, Laguna and Rizal reverted to GCQ after being placed under modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) for two weeks to curb the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases.
“We should not hastily allow too many people to be outside their homes. What should be done is slowly but surely because our enemy is a virus that we cannot not see,” Zamora said.
As of August 28, San Juan has 516 active COVID-19 cases.
“We have seen in the past months is that the number of recoveries have increased and the number of deaths decreased,” he said.
There are 1,270 patients who have recovered in San Juan.
“That means our health care system, our doctors, hospitals have learned more about how to really take care of our COVID-19 patients,” he added.
Moderate and severe cases of COVID-19 are currently being treated at the city-run San Juan Medical Center while mild and asymptomatic patients are isolated at the city’s quarantine facilities.
Zamora said their COVID-19 response primarily revolves around aggressive contact tracing, testing, and treatment.
The local government is also continuously conducting targeted mass testing where close contacts of COVID-19 patients are prioritized for testing.
“It is better to test close contacts first because we immediately quarantine them so that they would not infect other members of our community,” he said.