San Juan City thanks DOH as COVID-19 cases drop

In a meeting with the Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III, San Juan City Mayor Francisco Javier M. Zamora thanked the Department of Health (DOH) for its timely and continuous assistance to the city since the outset of the COVID-19 crisis.

“Maraming salamat po sa DOH. Without DOH, mahihirapan ho [talaga kami], lalo na noong unang bugso ng COVID-19,” said Mayor Zamora recalling how the Department assisted them in responding to the very first COVID-19 case in the city.

According to the Local Chief, the city has far improved its response strategies in containing local community transmission. He shared that innovations such as the use of COVID-19 online tracker, the strict implementation of the enhanced community quarantine, and close coordination with the Barangay Health Emergency Response Teams, along with the cooperation of San Juan City residents, made their response more efficient.

“Nag-spike ang number of cases nung simula, pero eventually, nahabol naman natin,” shared Mayor Zamora referring to the peak of cases in San Juan City, recording almost 14 cases daily until recently when the city recorded an average of one to zero COVID-19 case per day.

San Juan Medical Center, a Level 1 facility has been equipped for COVID-19, with 40 beds in its 2 wards (infectious and non-infectious), 10 beds in its intensive care unit, and 10 ventilators, 5 of which are currently in use.

The city has also transformed the Barangay Corazon de Jesus covered court into a swabbing center which has swabbed 3,895 individuals to date. It also has a Kalinga Center where it houses suspect and probable cases pending the results of their RT-PCR tests.

While the city currently has a 14% mortality rate, the positivity rate of 1.9% and doubling time of 7 to 10 days are welcome developments indicating that the city is on the right track. (DOH)