CORONAVIRUS disease (COVID-19) new variant cases in the city rose to 38 with the detection by the Philippine Genome Center this week of nine more variants – the B117 or the UK variant and two B 1351 or the South African variant – in COVID-19 patients.
City Health Officer Dr. Rowena Galpo said the age range of the patients is from two to 87 years old with 38 as the average age.
Twenty-four were female and 14 were male.
The number of Cordillera patients afflicted with the more contagious variants of COVID-19 has climbed to 143, with one patient in Abra getting infected with the variant (B.1.617) first detected in India.
The OFW was tested, however, at the NCR and has not set foot in her hometown in Abra. She has recovered, DOH said.
DOH-Abra Team Leader Alex Bayubay and PHO Maria Christina V. Cabrera said that the OFW who is from Bangued had no close contact in her province. According to them, the OFW arrived from Dubai last April 26, 2021, and was put in isolation immediately in a hotel in Tarlac City. On May 1, she tested positive for the variant.
She was declared negative of the virus on May 12, a day before her arrival in Abra. She was brought to the Bangued Quarantine Municipal Quarantine Facility and transferred to the barangay isolation facility on May 16.
It was learned that she was vaccinated with Sinopharm on February 13 in Dubai.
Mayor Benjamin Magalong is of the belief that the city’s UK variant cases now run to more than a hundred and South African to more than ten, based on the surge experienced by the city in the past months.
This just cannot be captured at the actual time due to limitations in processing all the specimens submitted by the city to the PGC.
Galpo said the mayor’s hunch may be true based on their findings that the rate of current afflictions in the city is faster than before.
The nine new cases belonged to clusters of cases identified in the past months.
Contact tracing and other preventive measures are currently being undertaken to break the transmission even as the public is reminded anew to continue observing health and safety measures.
“While the new variants are more contagious, the mode of transmission remains the same and thus, the best prevention remains to be the wearing of face masks and face shields; physical distancing; proper washing of hands; avoidance of crowd, close conversation and confined spaces; and proper ventilation,” the city official stressed.- Frank Cimatu and Aileen P. Refuerzo
