We Did Not Lock Down Development During Pandemic – Mayor Isko

Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso highlighted developments in the city amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in his third State of the City Address on Thursday, July 15.

- Noreen A. Jazul

In his almost two-hour report, Domagoso listed the efforts done by the local government to fight COVID-19, as well as projects to address problems such as poverty, unemployment, and lack of educational materials for hybrid learning.

“If we have done so much with so little time, so little, so fast under challenging conditions, it is because ordinary people rose to do extraordinary things,” Domagoso said.

“We did not lock down development, we did not place progress in quarantine, we worked through the long dark night,” he added.

Here are the developments in Manila announced by Domagoso in his State of the City Address:

1. On COVID-19pandemic response

• Vaccines deployed in the city nears one million

• Procurement of equipment such as air-purifying respirators, mechanical ventilators, saturation machines, and high-low oxygenators for the city’s six district hospitals

• Construction of COVID-19 Vaccine Storage Facility at Sta. Ana Hospital

• Construction of COVID-19 Field Hospital

• Construction of a molecular testing laboratory in Sta. Ana Hospital

• Tripartite agreement with AstraZeneca for 800,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines

• Twenty-two vaccination sites operating

• Procurement of Remdesivir, Tocilizumab, Avigan

2. Food Security Program