Manila Mayor Francisco "Isko Moreno" Domagoso assured that the city government is prepared for the "worst possible scenario" in its fight against COVID-19 amid the recent spike in cases.
Domagoso on Friday (March 19) said the city government has been doing 24/7 monitoring and intensified contact tracing to prevent the further spread of infection.
"The City of Manila is fully equipped, logistically speaking, because we've been preparing for this kind of situation—the worst possible scenario—so we have enough people contact tracers," he said in an interview over ANC.
" if rules are being implemented properly by enforcement agencies and if barangays are doing their responsibility to contain infections," he added.
Data from the city government showed that as of Friday (March 19), the capital city has 2,155 active cases out of 32,587 confirmed COVID-19 cases.
Of this number, 29,585 have recovered while 847 have died.
"There must have been neglect along the way. Whoever , we don't want to point fingers anymore," Domagoso said when asked about what may have caused the surge in infections.
The Manila city government has been implementing granular lockdowns in barangays with high number of cases to help the city's contact tracers work more quickly.
The Manila mayor explained that for every infected person, tracers are able to locate an average of 11 to 15 people who came into close contact with them.
Aside from strictly enforcing health protocols, the city government is also implementing programs to cushion the socioeconomic impacts of the COVID-19 crisis.
One of these is the distribution of food boxes under the city's Food Security Program to mitigate hunger in the capital city. Residents who are affected by lockdowns are prioritized in the distribution.