Due to the increasing number of asymptomatic cases of COVID-19 in the city, Makati City Mayor Abigail “Abby” Binay said granular lockdowns will be implemented in several COVID-19 hotspots in the city.
“There will be a series of other granular lockdowns that we will be implementing in the city because we learned that there are a lot of asymptomatic cases in the city – the spreaders. So, we will be implementing more lockdowns,” she said during an online interview via Webex.
She said the city, known as the country's financial district, is preparing for the Delta variant of COVID-19 by building a field hospital to increase bed capacity.
“We are currently building a field hospital to increase our bed capacity in Pembo, near the existing Ospital ng Makati,” Binay said.
She added that the city government will distribute home care COVID-19 kits for those who are under home quarantine.
"We will supply them with vitamins on top of the usual monitoring and contact tracing,” Binay said.
“The Delta variant is not necessarily more virulent or more deadly, but it is the access to health care services that will cause the spike of deaths caused by COVID-19,” she said.
Binay said the city government has also procured oxygen tanks and oxygenators.
“We have already procured more than enough oxygen tanks, we have also procured oxygenators in preparation for the Delta variant.”
The mayor noted that Makati City only has two hospitals---Ospital ng Makati, and Makati Medical Center--- that cater to COVID-19 patients.
“It is not easy to just increase the number of hospital beds, because you also need more nurses, and most of our nurses are now deployed to vaccination sites. We are now pulling out our nurses from the vaccination sites in order for them to take care of our COVID-19 patients again,” she said.
On July 28, the Department of Health (DOH) said that one case of Delta variant was detected in Makati City.
The data of the LGU showed that Makati City has a total of 665 active cases of COVID-19, as of July 27, 2021.