San Juan City had an increase of 133 COVID-19 cases in a span of 10 days, Mayor Francis Zamora reported on Thursday (March 11).
Zamora, in an interview with ANC, said the increase in the number of active cases in the city has been “very high” compared to what it has been experiencing in the past few months.
Last Feb. 17, San Juan only had 30 active cases. The number rose to 63 by March 1, and further increased to 196 by March 10, according to Zamora.
When asked about what could be the reason for the increase in the city’s cases, Zamora said: “It’s really hard to figure out.”
“What we’re doing now is the same thing that we’ve been doing for the last year. In fact, we have not really changed any of our protocols because they have been working for us except that the last possibly seven to 10 days in the entire Metro Manila, we have seen the numbers increasing and you hear about the new variants coming in and how they spread faster than the usual variants,” Zamora said.
The mayor said the Metro Manila Council will meet today with the Department of Health and OCTA Research group to identify whether the new variants are causing the spike in cases.
Zamora said that he does not see “any reason” for the number of cases to “shoot up this fast” just because people are not following minimum health protocols.
“People are following, not 100 percent if I’m being honest…Marami din naman na di sumusunod pero not to the point na magiging exponential yung growth ng infections in just a few days (There’s a lot of people who don’t follow protocols but not to the point when there would be exponential growth in infections in just a few days),” he said.
San Juan on March 9 reinstated its 10 p.m. to 5 p.m curfew amid the rising cases in the city. Zamora said he also directed the city’s chief of police and law enforcers to be stricter in terms of implementing minimum health standards.
“The implementation of the curfew s basically a psychological reminder to people that ‘hey guys, we are experiencing a spike. Please change your mindset. Do not relax. Don't be confident just because the vaccine roll out has started',” the mayor said.