The support provided by the national government to pandemic response and the augmentation offered by other local government units helped Pasay City put coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases at a manageable level.

Mayor Emi Calixto-Rubiano, in a text message on Saturday, acknowledged contract tracers provided by other Metro Manila cities as one of the reasons why Pasay efficiently implemented the government’s Prevent-Detect-Isolate-Treat-Reintegrate (PDITR) strategy to contain the further spread of the virus.

“We are very much thankful to the chief executives of Caloocan, Taguig, and Parañaque for sending us additional contract tracers who contributed to our existing efforts against the virus,” Rubiano said in a Viber message in Filipino.

The mayor added the national government also provided them with additional quarantine facilities through the Oplan Kalinga Program and One Hospital Command.

Pasay logged 101 new infections on Friday that brought active cases to 609, a significant decrease since February when new cases reached as much as 2,600 in a day.

Of 12,476 total confirmed cases, 11,546 have already recovered and 321 died.

Apart from expanding contract tracing, Pasay also intensified its testing capacity from 7,000 in February to 17,000 tests in March.

The enforcement of granular lockdowns as soon as cases rose also resulted in lowering numbers, Rubiano added.

To date, Pasay has 134 barangays still under granular lockdowns while 431 households are being monitored.

Meanwhile, the city government has started the distribution of cash aid to residents, with P348 million allotted for 201 barangays.

The city’s vaccination tracker also showed 13,942 residents have received Covid-19 jabs as of April 10. They include the elderly, persons with comorbidities, and healthcare workers.