Taguig City Mayor Lino Cayetano on Sunday said the city government has so far conducted 98,811 reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests or equivalent to 10.01 percent of its population.

“As of January 8, the city has conducted 98,811 PCR tests. With these numbers, we have already conducted PCR tests on 10.01 percent of our local population, making Taguig one of the most aggressive in Covid-19 testing in the country. The city also achieved its goal to test 10 percent of our total population by the end of the year 2020,” he said.

Cayetano said the promotion of aggressive testing has been one of Taguig’s proactive and valuable approaches in containing the virus infection within the city.

“It also became a great help for us to study the novelty of the virus and the pandemic it brought,” he added.

He also said the establishment of their own molecular laboratory helped them to reach their target of almost 100,000 swab tests by the end of 2020.

“Even though we have reached our target number of PCR tests conducted, the city vows continue its aggressive efforts to prevent further infection,” he said.

He said Taguig has the lowest active Covid-19 cases per 100,000 population in Metro Manila at four.

Metro Manila has 19 active Covid-19 cases per 100,000 population.

Cayetano said Taguig has 10,811 confirmed Covid-19 cases, but 98.16 percent of these, or 10,612, have recovered. This is far higher than the 95.51 percent Covid-19 recovery rate for Metro Manila.

The Covid-19 attack rate in the city is at 1.09 percent, far less than the 1.13 percent attack rate for the National Capital Region.

Taguig’s case fatality rate, or the proportion of deaths from Covid-19, is at 1.58 percent, lower than the average of 2.93 percent in Metro Manila. The city has 171 Covid-19 deaths so far.

“We will keep working hard by keeping our case fatality rate low,” he said.

In line with recovery plans, Cayetano assured that all Taguigeños would have access to a free Covid-19 vaccine once it becomes available in the country.

He said the city government earmarked PHP1 billion for the vaccination program and a total of PHP13.5 billion for its recovery efforts from the pandemic impact. (PNA)