No extension of curfew hours in Pasay City
Pasay City Mayor Emi Calixto-Rubiano will not follow other cities in Metro Manila like Parañaque and San Juan to extend the standard curfew hours amid rising cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and its variants.
Rubiano said the city will not follow their lead and instead intensify its implementation of local containment measures which deemed to be effective.
She said in an interview with radio program S.O.S, the city would rather intensify the implementation of basic health protocols than imposed longer curfew hours because they wanted to keep the city’s economy going.
“Epektibo naman po ang aming ginagawang localized lockdown at katunayan nga po ay nabawasan na ang mga kaso dito sa amin, kung noon pong nakaraang lingo ay halos 100 kada araw ang naitatala, ngayon po ay nasa 60 hangang 70 na lamang po (The localized lockdown we are implementing is effective and there is a decrease in cases. If the previous week we had 100 new cases per day, now we are now averaging from 60 to 70),” Rubiano said.
The mayor credited the decline in cases to their aggressive contact tracing efforts and their strict implementation of basic health and safety protocols through the EMI Habit (Ensure to always wash your hands; Mask is a must, and Implement physical distancing).
Rubiano, however, pointed out that she does not want to disrupt the momentum of local businesses which are now slowly recovering after a long slump due to pandemic lockdowns.
“Dagdag ko na rin po na talaga naman dating mababa ang kaso dito sa Pasay dahil sa ipinatutupad nating mahigpit na basic health protocols at katunayan pangalawa tayo sa may pinakamababang kaso sa lahat ng siyudad sa Metro Manila at medyo tumaas lamang nitong mga huling linggo (Before we are second to cities in Metro Manila with lowest cases because of the strict implementation of basic health protocols and we only recorded an increase during the past few weeks),” Rubiano said.
She also reported that all four patients infected with the South African variant are now fully recovered including those that they had close contact with up to the third level.