San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora urged the public anew to get vaccinated against COVID-19 especially amid the threat of its more contagious Delta variant.

In an interview with CNN Philippines on Monday, the mayor said that because of the vaccines, the COVID-19 situation in San Juan is still manageable despite the previous surge in active cases, prompting the national government to place Metro Manila under the Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ) until September 7.

Zamora said that the city now has 578 active cases, but only .52 percent are severe and none are critical. He added that people should not just focus on the number of active cases, but also focus on the severity.

"That means 99 percent of the rest of the cases are just asymptomatic or mild with very, very small percentage of moderate. So we can see that the vaccines are working. People usually ask me, "Mayor, now that you have reached herd immunity, how has it affected you or your city?" and this is my answer: If you get COVID-19 while you are vaccinated already, more often than not, in fact with the data we are seeing, you'll always just be asymptomatic or mild, and that is the difference," he said.

Zamora added that San Juan Medical Center (SJMC) is now at 85 percent capacity.

The mayor had said earlier that after the MECQ classification in Metro Manila ends on September 7, Metro Manila will then shift to a granular lockdown classification to help ease the burden of the pandemic on workers and the economy.

“Basically, what will happen is the entire Metro Manila will be under GCQ (General Community Quarantine) status but areas with high cases will be under granular lockdown. When I say areas, this will not be city-wide anymore, it will not be barangay-wide anymore, it will be for instance a road, a compound, an apartment, a specific pocket area which has a high number of cases,” Zamora said.

READ MORE: https://mb.com.ph/2021/09/06/mayor-zamora-on-granular-lockdown-its-going-to-work-if-implemented-well