Mandaue City has logged a high recovery rate for its COVID-19 cases with 1,121 recoveries, which is higher compared to its 719 active cases.
During the Laging Handa Network Briefing interview with Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Sec. Martin Andanar, Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes said the high recovery rate in the city is due to the effective teams that have been established to combat the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
“We have contact tracing teams, diagnostic and testing, patient management and monitoring, logistics and support, and data management teams. We have given our all out support for these teams to make them effective,” said Cortes.
He shared that the city government is ensuring to build a good rapport with the barangay officials.
Mandaue city is also beefing up its contact tracing strategy with the establishment of a contact tracing command center that is open 24/7 to do data processing.
A team from the city government and the Philippine National Police (PNP) is in-charge of handling the data collected by the city’s contact tracers.
At present, there are 500 contact tracers in the barangay level.
However, Cortes said there is still a need to hire more with the city eyeing to hire 120 contact tracers.
As of this writing, only 30 contact tracers have been hired.
During the interview, the mayor also expressed his gratitude for the aid that the national government has extended to Mandaue City.
“We are very thankful that (COVID-19 Deputy Overseer for Cebu) General Feliciano is here. He has guided us by telling us what to do and what not to do. May epekto talaga ang pagpunta nila ni (COVID-19 Overseer for Cebu) Secretary Cimatu dito sa Cebu,” the mayor said.
Meanwhile, a data banking system is being implemented in the city to ease the process of acquiring convalescent plasma from patients who have recovered from COVID-19.
“Ang ginawa natin is not just for rapid testing but also blood typing. Para kung may severe patients na kailangan ng convalescent plasma, we can easily contact and connect these patients to those who have already recovered,” said Cortes. (poc/PIA7)
