FILE PHOTO: San Juan City residents get inoculated with a single dose of Johnson & Johnson鈥檚 at the FilOil Flying V Center on Wednesday, July 21, 2021, where around 600 people from A2-A3 priority categories received the one-shot vaccine. Ni帽o Jesus Orbeta/Philippine Daily Inquirer
MANILA, Philippines 鈥� San Juan City鈥檚 active COVID-19 cases dropped by 86 percent in 18 days, Mayor Francis Zamora said Monday.
From nearly 2,000 COVID-19 cases, the city鈥檚 active infections are now around 270, according to the local chief executive.
鈥淎s of January 12鈥� we had 1,947 cases and as of January 30, we only had 272. So, that is now an 86-percent drop in just 18 days. So, during the last 18 days, our daily cases are experiencing a sharp decline,鈥� Zamora said on ANC鈥檚 Headstart.
The mayor pointed out that 99.5 percent of their active COVID-19 cases are mild to no symptoms (asymptomatic) due to the high rate of vaccination against the disease.
READ: 106% of NCR鈥檚 population protection target now fully vaxxed vs COVID
鈥淪o, it does not mean that because the numbers are down it鈥檚 caused by non-testing, I beg to disagree with that. I honestly think that the very high vaccination rate in San Juan and in Metro Manila is a major factor because even if people get COVID, like for instance here in San Juan, 99.5 percent of our cases are simply mild to asymptomatic,鈥� he noted.
For Zamora, the decrease in COVID-19 cases is caused by underreporting as people would get tested using home rapid antigen kits and not report the results to the local government.
READ: FDA OKs 2 brands of self-test COVID-19 antigen kits
鈥淪o, why are the numbers very low now? I believe that there was underreporting in terms of the number of cases simply because people would do home tests using antigen kits. They may not report anymore to the local government. They just decide to stay home 7 to 10 days and then get better,鈥� he explained.
Further, Zamora said he expects the number of San Juan City鈥檚 active COVID-19 cases to further decline to below 100 in the following days.
READ: San Juan City records all-time low 29 active COVID-19 cases
The health department reported on January 30 the coronavirus infection of 16,953 more people in the country. Of which, 2,008 were recorded in Metro Manila.
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