Quezon City posts highest COVID-19 recovery rate

MANILA, Philippines — Quezon City’s recovery rate for COVID-19 has increased to 85 percent, Mayor Joy Belmonte said in her State of the City Address yesterday.

Belmonte attributed the highest recovery rate to the city government’s ramped-up health response and allocation of resources.

She said Quezon City improved to 15th from third spot in Metro Manila in terms of the number of COVID-19 cases.

The number of positive COVID-19 cases also dropped to nine percent from almost 20 percent, Belmonte said.

She commended the city’s healthcare workers and other frontliners.

“Because of everyone’s sacrifices, we have gradually tamed this beast of a pandemic. We were able to protect our residents while shielding the blows to people’s livelihood,” Belmonte said.

The mayor said the local government would continue to focus on test, isolate, trace and treat strategy to fight COVID-19.

Belmonte said Quezon City has conducted 60,166 free swab tests “more than any other local government unit.”

The city government also acquired two mobile testing units and inaugurated its own molecular laboratory to boost its testing capacity.

During the address, Belmonte also reported that the city government has passed five supplemental budgets and realigned over P12-billion funding for COVID-19 response.

She said a bulk of the funds were allocated for financial assistance to residents.

Through the Kalingang QC program, city hall gave 607,000 residents P2,000 each. The beneficiaries include PUV drivers, vendors, senior citizens, persons with disability, solo parents, lactating mothers, displaced daily wage earners and other vulnerable sectors.

The city’s own social amelioration program provided financial aid to more than 177,000 qualified families who were not covered by the SAP of the national government.

Belmonte said the city has also earmarked around P700 million for small businesses and partnered with the private sector to help individuals who lost their jobs during the pandemic.