San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora on Wednesday called for intensified vaccination in the country to curb the spread of COVID-19 and its more transmissible variants, saying that vaccines have been proven to be highly effective in preventing severe to critical COVID-19 cases.
The Metro Manila Council (MMC) held a meeting on Tuesday, August 17, to discuss the next quarantine status for the National Capital Region (NCR) which was placed under the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) until August 20, and the steps needed to further mitigate the number of COVID-19 cases.
The Metro Manila mayors also aired their concern regarding the COVID-19 risk categories of local government units (LGUs).
"Kagabi sa pagpupulong, marami sa mga mayors ang umaalma at isa na din ako dun sapagkat halimbawa, may mga tertiary hospitals, halimbawa ang Cardinal Santos Medical Center, sa ibang mga lungsod may mga malalaking ospital din, hindi naman lahat po ng COVID patients ay taga San Juan ngunit ang datos ay napupunta sa amin. Nagiging mataas ang alert level namin ngunit yung mga pasyente na ito ay hindi naman lahat taga sa amin, maaring taga probinsya na pumunta po rito sa Manila upang magpa-ospital. So it does not give a clear perspective dahil hindi naman namin pasyente po yun (During the meeting last night, most mayors aired their concern (on the risk categories for LGUs), including myself. For example, in a lot of tertiary hospitals in Metro Manila such as the Cardinal Santos Medical Center, not all COVID patients are from San Juan, but the data are being placed on us. Hence, our alert level rises but not all patients are our residents. Some of them may be from other provinces who went to Manila to be hospitalized. So it does not give a clear perspective because not all patients are from San Juan)," Zamora said.
"Napupunta po samin ang alert level, nagmumukha kaming mataas ang alert level but in reality, they are not from our cities (Our alert level increases but in reality, they are not from our cities)," he added.
READ MORE: https://mb.com.ph/2021/08/18/mmc-voting-on-ncrs-quarantine-status-after-aug-20-mayor-zamora/
"Ano ang mga dapat nating gawin sa punto na ito? Unang una, dapat dagdagan ang mga nababakunahan araw-araw dahil nakikita natin basta may bakuna, may proteksyon (What should we do right now? First of all, we must increase the number of people being vaccinated everyday because we can see that as long as people are vaccinated, they are protected)," Zamora said in an interview with DZMM.
"Karamihan sa mga pasyente natin ngayon, bagamat positive sila, if they are vaccinated, they remain to be mild or asymptomatic. Dito sa San Juan, ang aming percentage po ng moderate or severe ay 1 percent. 98 percent of cases are mild or asymptomatic (Most of our patients right now, despite being positive, if they are vaccinated, they remain to be mild or asymptomatic. Here in San Juan, our percentage of severe to moderate is just 1 percent. Ninety eight percent of cases are mild or asymptomatic)," he added.
Zamora said that there are now 414 active cases in San Juan. However, 98 percent of them are mild or asymptomatic, which means the San Juan Medical Center (SJMC) is only 55 percent full
"Karamihan sa mga COVID cases nila ay nasa quarantine facilities lang kasi mild and asymptomatic lang sila (Most of their COVID cases are in quarantine facilities because they are just mild and asymptomatic)," he said.