Galvez cites Parañaque as model city in fight vs Covid-19

THE City of Parañaque is a role model for other local government units throughout the country in its implementation of systems and procedures to stop the spread of Covid-19, according to Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., Chief Implementer of the National Action Plan Against Covid-19. Galvez made the comments on September 3 during a visit to Parañaque by a Coordinated Operations to Defeat Epidemic (CODE) Team which took note of the city’s success in significantly bringing down the number of daily new infections from around 200 to 30. “The purpose of our visit is to gain lessons from Parañaque to serve as a model for other cities in the Philippines, especially those outside Metro Manila where mayors are desperately crying for help from the national government,” Galvez said. He requested Mayor Edwin Olivarez to produce a video presentation documenting the LGU’s best practices in the fight against Covid 19 that will be shown all over the Philippines “so others will learn from your experience.” Galvez cited in particular Parañaque’s creation of a Special Task Force to deal with Covid-19 led by Mayor Olivarez himself, and the designation of individual czars to lead focused efforts in prevention, detection, isolation, treatment and reintegration. Olivarez thanked Galvez and the national government for providing much needed support in the fight against the pandemic, including facilitating approvals for a new bio-molecular laboratory to reinforce testing regimen. City Health Officer Dr. Olga Virtusio reported that of the 4,800 confirmed cases in the city, only 16 percent or 767 are active, while recoveries stand at 3,903 or more than 81 percent, one of the highest in the country. Doubling rate is at 37 days, while deaths stood at 230 or 2.7 percent of the total confirmed cases.