Setting up an extensive contact tracing network along with isolation units and treatment facilities helped Cagayan de Oro City Hall keep COVID-19 at bay and prepared the city in handling the arrival of returning Kagay-anons, Mayor Oscar Moreno said Tuesday afternoon, July 28.

“As the gateway to and the central hub of northern Mindanao, Cagayan de Oro City’s advantage also became its challenge since it hosts several hospitals including the Northern Mindanao Medical Center (NMMC) which the Department of Health (DOH) designated as the main COVID-19 referral hospital in the region,” Mayor Moreno said during the webinar hosted by the Center for Local and Regional Governance (CLRG).

The webinar titled “Rising To The Challenge of the Pandemic: LGU Best Practices in COVID-19 Crisis Management” featured Mayor Moreno and five local officials who shared their respective experiences and insights in leading their constituencies and local governments on dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.

In his presentation, Mayor Moreno credited the daily press briefings, the early mobilization of a contact tracing network for intensified household surveillance and City Hall’s forging of a partnership between the DOH, NMMC, and private hospitals for containing and preventing the surge of COVID-19 cases in the city.

“Through our press briefings, we made sure that the public is fully updated and informed of City Hall’s efforts in handling the pandemic and we learned more about COVID-19 from NMMC and DOH,” Mayor Moreno said.

“In return, the city’s JR Borja General Hospital and private hospitals accepted non-COVID-19 cases to allow NMMC to focus on dealing with COVID-19 patients.”

City Hall’s later acquisition of testing facilities to bolster the testing capacities of both NMMC and DOH helped the city’s efforts on early detection, screening and isolation of both city residents and returning Kagay-anons who test positive for COVID-19, Mayor Moreno shared.

“We mobilized the entire City Hall bureaucracy and continually strategized our efforts in handling our COVID-19 positive patients and our returning Kagay-anons. Through partnerships with stakeholders like hotels, inns and pension houses, hospitals and the private sector, we at City Hall continue to have a good handle on our situation,” Mayor Moreno said.