Marikina City saw a 200 percent increase in its active COVID-19 cases in a span of two weeks, Mayor Marcy Teodoro said on Monday (March 22).
“We currently have 898 active cases of COVID-19. Fourteen days or two weeks ago, we only had around 400 cases. This is almost a 200 percent increase,” he said in an interview with ANC. In addition, he said the recovery rate of the city became slow.
“Our isolation facilities have reached their maximum capacity. Our healthcare system is operating beyond capacity,” he said.
Due to this, he said Marikina residents who need to be hospitalized are now being brought to hospitals outside the city in order for them to get accommodated.
“Our ambulances are now on standby to bring patients to hospitals outside the city,” the mayor said.
Teodoro said he has coordinated with the Department of Health (DOH) in order to build additional isolation facilities.
“Patients are now lining up to have the opportunity to be admitted in hospitals. We need to refer patients outside of Marikina, especially in Antipolo. We’re referring now in Antipolo and nearby municipalities and cities adjacent to Marikina,” he said.
Despite the rising number of cases, Teodoro said no granular lockdown has been implemented in Marikina.
Instead, what the local government is doing is take out COVID-positive patients from their households and put them in isolation facilities, according to Teodoro.
The mayor said the local government is already looking for buildings that they can convert into isolation facilities.
Asked if the city government plans to reinstate the use of quantient passes, Teodoro said: “I think it will not solve the problem.”
Teodoro said the city will just implement a heightened restriction in the movement of people in the city, especially those with comorbidities, immunodeficiencies, pregnant women, minors, and individuals beyond the age of 65.
“We will simply coordinate with the various barangays in Marikina to implement what we call a whole-of-community approach in reminding people and convincing them to stay at home," he said.
He said the local government will also do some “engineering and administrative interventions” in its commercial and retail establishments offering essential services.
“We're doing inspection starting today in order to provide what we call engineering intervention to improve the ventilation of a particular establishment or the workplace. We need to ensure that workplaces are safe from COVID. We're not penalizing (them). What we're doing is positive reinforcement," Teodoro said.