San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora said on Tuesday, Feb. 22, that he supports downgrading Metro Manila to Alert Level 1 amid the declining number of COVID-19 cases being recorded in the metropolis.
"As of today (Feb. 22), the City of San Juan only has 28 active cases of COVID-19. This is already a 99 percent drop from six weeks ago wherein we had 1,947 cases during the peak of the surge," Zamora said.
"Our quarantine facilities are only 3.7 percent occupied, while our San Juan Medical Center's (SJMC) COVID-19 beds are at 16 percent. We have already vaccinated 259 percent of our target population," he added.
The mayor also explained that the regional positivity rate of Metro Manila is down to 5.9 percent and San Juan is one of the 15 cities in the National Capital Region (NCR) that are currently classified as low risk.
Zamora reminded the public to not be complacent despite the declining numbers of both active COVID-19 cases and healthcare utilization rates of hospitals and medical facilities in the National Capital Region (NCR). He also urged those who have yet to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to do so and also be boosted after receiving their second dose.
The Metro Manila Council (MMC), composed of 17 mayors in Metro Manila and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), will conduct a meeting later on Tuesday, Feb. 22, to discuss the next alert level status for Metro Manila starting March 1.
According to the bulletin released by the Department of Health (DOH) on Monday, Feb. 21, 1,427 fresh COVID-19 infections were recorded, lower than Sunday’s data of 1,712 new cases.
Active cases are now lower than 60,000 and have dropped to 58,657 or 1.6 percent of the total number of cases.