Belmonte bares best responses vs COVID-19

QUEZON CITY, Philippines — Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte yesterday highlighted the best practices that helped keep the number of active COVID-19 cases in the city at manageable levels.

During a dialogue with national government officials led by Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, Belmonte said only 1,822 cases are active out of the total 10,736 confirmed positive individuals in the city.

She said the bulk of the cases – 8,751 – have recovered, giving the city a recover rate of 63 percent.

While Quezon City has the most cases in Metro Manila in terms of absolute numbers, the mayor noted that it is 12th in the region if the figures are based on the number of cases per one million population.

With 3.1 million residents, the city is among the most populous in the country.

“It has been both a learning process and a challenge for all of us in Quezon City,” Belmonte said.

Tipping the scales

In her presentation, Belmonte noted that the city has distributed over 93,000 face masks and face shields, as well as over 6,800 information and educational materials about the pandemic.

“As early as April, we already saw that the wearing of face masks is going to be the determining factor should we tip the scales of battle against COVID towards our favor,” she said.

Belmonte welcomed the launching of the “Mask Para sa Masa” campaign, which aims to provide 30 million locally manufactured washable face masks to poor families in the country.

Local lockdowns

Belmonte also highlighted the success of the special concern lockdown policy, which has already covered 48 areas with almost 10,000 families.

She said the lockdowns were able to detect over 1,000 positive individuals.

“More than ever, we’ve been finding the need to lockdown relatively small but blighted areas, no more than one or two residential lots in size,” she said. “Had these lockdowns been missed, the total cases would be far greater in number.”

Belmonte said over 35,000 tests have been conducted in government-owned facilities in the city, particularly the community testing centers in each of the six districts and in the three locally operated hospitals.

Almost every barangay also has its own quarantine facility in addition to the city-operated HOPE caring facilities.

Belmonte urged the Department of the Interior and Local Government to adopt the initiative, saying people are more willing to be isolated when they are in their respective barangays.

Over the past months, Quezon City also acquired five additional x-ray machines, four medical ventilators, two mobile testing vans and 30 service vehicles and five e-tricycles for the city’s contact tracers.

The city will also open its own molecular laboratory, which can process up to 1,000 tests per day.

“Now that Quezon City will have its own laboratory… we can process more samples starting in the first week of September,” said Belmonte.

“I believe that the number of active cases should be the most significant indicator… as we improve our ability to treat our patients, we expect continued decreases in our active cases,” she added.