MANILA, Philippines — San Juan City recorded no new cases or deaths due to the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) for two straight days — May 22 and 23 — for the first time since Metro Manila was placed under lockdown on March 15.
Though the smallest city in the metropolis, San Juan emerged at the start of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) as one of the first COVID-19 epicenters here after a number of cases were traced back to Greenhills Shopping Center, a well-known retail destination and pillar of its local economy.
The city is also one of the densest in the capital, with over 122,000 residents squeezed into less than 8 square kilometers, seeming to make it ripe for the spread of the contagious disease. But since May 21, the number of confirmed cases has remained at 302.
Even before Friday, however, San Juan had observed a steady decline in new cases, with an average of just two per day over the last week.
Deaths due to COVID-19 have also remained stagnant, holding at 40 since May 20.
Twin success
Mayor Francis Zamora said that before May 21, there was only one other day, March 26, when there was no new COVID-19 case reported after the ECQ was imposed. The twin success of having no new cases and deaths for two days now seemed to be a hopeful sign of progress.
As of Sunday, 138 residents in the city had recovered from COVID-19. There were still 32 suspect and probable cases, and 124 remained admitted in various hospitals.
The outbreak in San Juan was still concentrated in two areas: Barangay Greenhills, where the shopping center is located, and neighboring Barangay West Crame, the most populous village in the city. They accounted for nearly 30 percent of the city’s total number of confirmed cases.
The local government of Manila, on the other hand, has asked residents not to be alarmed over the rising number of cases in the city which it linked to its mass testing and contact tracing efforts.
In a statement on Saturday, Vice Mayor Honey Lacuna said that residents could expect the number of confirmed cases to go up in the next days now that the local government was identifying and isolating those infected by the coronarvirus.
“For example, a person from a certain community tests positive during a swab test. We will focus on that community through rapid testing, and we can at least zero in on where the problem lies,” she added.
According to her, confirmed cases would immediately be isolated to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
As of Sunday, Manila had 1,203 confirmed COVID-19 cases, up from 1,178 on May 22 and 1,057 on May 18.
No shortage
Lacuna also assured residents that there would be no shortage in testing kits despite the local government’s efforts to increase its mass testing capacity.
In an online public address on Saturday, Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso announced that 7,481 swab tests had been conducted in the city, on top of 43,067 rapid antibody tests.
He encouraged residents to register at manila.staysafe.ph, an online application that would help in monitoring one’s symptoms and their proximity to a probable, suspect or positive COVID-19 patient. INQ