With the country experiencing a sudden surge of COVID-19 cases over the weekend, Manila Mayor Franciso “Isko Moreno” Domagoso said the city has heightened its health emergency preparedness as he assured his constituents that all necessary preparations to combat the spread of the virus, including the more contagious Omicron variant, are in place.
“There are steps that are being done. Due diligence. It’s better to be early and find out the real situation of our city, and where we are now, and what to do, and what to prepare, and what tools we will need that we have prepared a few months ago, a few weeks ago, which we can use in the coming days and months,” Domagoso said.
“Promptness overcomes diligence. While it is true that we are still in a situation that we can still do, but I don’t want you to come to the situation that we are all racing against time,” he added.
Domagoso said based on actual inventory as of 5 p.m. Sunday, the City of Manila’s “medicine cabinet” has an ample stockpile of life-saving anti-COVID drugs: 22,758 tablets of Mulnopiravir; 3,935 of Remdesivir; 3520 of Baricitinib; and 732 of Tocilizumab.
The 47-year-old Manila chief executive said an additional supply of Mulnopiravir that the city government bought last December is expected to arrive today (January 4).
Domagoso said Manila has already placed advance orders for Paxlovid, a novel COVID-19 anti-viral pill touted to reduce the risk of hospitalization or death by 89 percent.
“There’s a new product, Paxlovid, we’ve already bought but it’s not yet available in the world. We are still looking forward to being available in the world, but hope that, if by any chance, he is available, we will acquire,” he said.
Manila City also has 1,374 tanks of oxygen in reserve, which is on top of the city’s regular usage of oxygen.