Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte has assigned the city’s health department, law and safety enforcement teams and barangays to boost their efforts in implementing all health protocols against coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Belmonte on Friday made the move as the local government has "observed that the public is becoming lax in taking COVID precautions" while "the city’s positive cases have been increasing steadily" for the past two weeks.
The city recorded a seven percent increase in its active cases, with 1,007 cases registered on February 26 compared to 945 cases last February 12.
"But we’d like to remind them that the virus is still very much in our midst, and this could possibly include a number of its variants. This is no time to relax," she added.
The local government will distribute face masks again to all barangays, especially to the city's indigent residents, Belmonte said.
Belmonte also said that following health protocols such as social distancing, wearing masks, washing hands, and avoiding mass gatherings will keep the virus from further spreading.
Meanwhile, City Epidemiology and Disease Surveillance Unit (CESU) chief, Dr. Rolly Cruz, said the local government’s strategy is early detection of suspects and clustered cases in communities and quick imposing of localized lockdowns.
"But we are also looking into rapidly rolling out COVID vaccines once they become available,” he said, as the CESU also recommended "setting up additional vaccination sites in the most affected areas of the city."