Pasay City Mayor Emi Calixto-Rubiano is grateful for all assistance the city received from the national government and other cities which greatly helped in successfully bringing down the number of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in the city to manageable level.

In an interview with Former avice President Noli de Castro over DZMM, Rubiano said that the contact tracers sent by other cities were one of the reasons they managed to efficiently implement the prevent-detect-isolate-treat-reintegrate (PDITR) system.

“Kaya naman po talagang nagpapasalamat ako sa mga punong-lungsod ng Caloocan, Taguig at Paranaque sa pagpapadala nila ng karagdagang contact tracers na malaking tulong po sa ating isinasagawang paglaban sa virus”, (I am very much thankful to the local executives of Caloocan, Taguig, and Paranaque for sending us additional contact tracers which were a big help in our figth against the virus), Rubiano said.

The mayor said that from having the highest number of cases last March that reached as much as 30,000, the city succeeded in bringing down the number to a manageable two digits this month.

“Noong Pebrero po ay nasa 7,000 lamang ang kaso namin pero noong Marso ay umabot na ito ng 30,000 kaya mahihirapan na po talaga ang ating 300 contact tracers. Kaya importante po at malaking tulong ang 100 contact tracers na ipinadala ng ating kalapit-lungsod,” (Last February we recorded 7,000 COVID-19 cases but it increased to 30,000 in March and our 300 contact tracers suffered problems. The 100 contact tracers sent to us by the nearby cities were a big help), Rubiano said.

Aside from the contact tracers, Rubiano also intensified swab testings from 7,000 in February to 17,000 in March, and immediately placed affected barangays under strict granular lockdowns.

Currently, the city still has 134 barangays under granular lockdowns consisting of 431 houses with one barangay still in total lockdown, but it continues to post a downtrend in the number of cases.  

“Naging epektibo po ang ating ipinatutupad na PDITR, kaya naman kung dati ay umaabot ng 190 plus ang average daily cases namin, ngayon po ay double digit na lamang ang kaso namin kada araw,” (Our PDITR is very much effective, if before we were recording an average of 190 plus daily cases, now we only record two digits in a day.), Rubiano added.

She also pointed out that the rules being strictly implemented in the city were based on the guidelines of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF)  for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.