San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora said on Monday, Jan. 31, that the city is once again experiencing a rapid decline in COVID-19 cases after tallying 272 cases on Sunday, Jan. 30, coming from a record high 1,947 cases last Jan. 12.
Zamora bared the good news in an interview with ANC. He said that the decline is an 86.03 percent drop in just 18 days.
The mayor attributed the continuous drop in COVID-19 cases to the high rate of vaccination of San Juan which is now at 250 percent of their target population.
Zamora also explained that San Juaneños are now self-regulating their activities and observing strict adherence to all health and safety protocols against the coronavirus.
“I’m seeing self-regulation in San Juan. In fact, without changing the alert status, people are not going out. It just means they already know what to do. They know how to take care of themselves and they know what would get them infected. So they really are just staying home, unless they really have to go out for essential activities,” Zamora said during an interview with CNN Philippines on Jan. 13.
Zamora added that the utilization rates in San Juan Medical Center (SJMC) and their quarantine facilities are at a low of 25 percent and 13 percent, respectively.
He said that with the forthcoming vaccination of children aged five to 11 starting Feb. 4, the local government expects a bigger percentage of their population to get protected against the deadly disease.
“But we must not be complacent. Let us continue to follow all minimum public health standards and get our booster shots for the numbers to decline even further," the mayor said.
San Juan also tallied 20,058 recoveries and 351 deaths as of Jan. 30.