The City Government of Navotas has presented to the Coordinated Operations to Defeat Epidemic (CODE) Team the web application it has developed to monitor the city’s response to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
The City Government also highlighted its best practices in dealing with the dreaded disease.
“We have developed the Navotas City Health COVID-19 tracker to help us monitor and assess our actions taken, identify and address problems, and craft data-informed decisions to curb the further transmission of the virus,” Mayor Toby Tiangco said.
The tracker provides live statistics on the number and status of confirmed cases, whether they have been advised of their test result, transferred to isolation facilities, or discharged.
It also provides tracking on close contacts, the schedule of their swab test, their test results, and if they have been brought to or discharged from isolation facilities.
Navotas Rep. John Rey Tiangco welcomed the CODE team composed of Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado, Metro Manila Development Authority General Manager Jojo Garcia, Department of the Interior and Local Government National Barangay Operations Office Director Dennis Villaseñor, Department of Health–National Capital Region Assistant Regional Director Paz Corrales, and Dr. Eleanor Galvez from the National Incident Command.
The lawmaker thanked the national government, noting that its steadfast support has been instrumental in the recent 47% decline of the city’s positivity rate.
“Navotas has been able to decrease its positivity rate because of intensified community testing, contact tracing and isolation and treatment. We were able to achieve much because our national government has been helping us every step of the way,” he said.
Meanwhile, City Health Officer Dr. Christia Padolina presented the city’s initiatives to fight COVID-19.
Padolina reported that as of September 6, the city has conducted 29,029 swab tests or around 11% of its 267,000 population.
Navotas also admitted 908 patients to its two local community isolation facilities, and 1,341 to national isolation facilities as of September 7.
The city government also established harmonized relationship and strong linkages among the city and barangay officials, as well as the business sector. Regular dialogues were conducted, and barangay leaders were given access and connection to the city’s command center, Padolina noted.
Navotas also streamlined its systems, processes and activities including the creation of referral system for probable, suspected and confirmed patients, and daily synchronization of data from the City Heath Office, Department of Health and emergency operation center.
Padolina noted that prompt and coordinated cluster activities of contact tracing, swab testing and isolation ensured that transmission at home and in the community remain at a minimum.
On the other hand, the imposition of granular lockdown and regular monitoring of households under stricter quarantine helped in the control of further infections.
Meanwhile, to restrict movement of Navotenos, the city government deployed quarantine enforcement personnel on targeted areas and entry points in critical areas as identified by the Philippine National Police–Navotas.
Longer curfew hours, issuance of home quarantine passes, and apprehension of violators of the community quarantine protocols were also implemented.
The city government also passed 10 city ordinances and 15 executive orders, including the 24-hour curfew for minors, interim guidelines for businesses allowed to operate during the community quarantine, proper use of face masks and practice of social distancing, among others.
“Movement restrictions have been relaxed now that we are under general community quarantine. Consequently, people get complacent and this poses a threat to their safety,” Mayor Tiangco lamented.
“To keep them protected from the disease, we have tightened our policy on curfew to encourage Navoteños to stay home if they have nothing important to do outside. We are also strictly implementing the proper wearing of face masks and face shield, if necessary, as well as the practice of social distancing,” he added.
Since August 19, the Navotas City Police reported 1,297 apprehensions for violation of curfew, 3,205 for improper or not wearing of face mask, and 298 for social distancing.
Other local initiatives in the city’s COVID-19 response included E-konsulta, house-to-house distribution of maintenance medicines to senior citizens, intensive information dissemination, and among others.