BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – The Department of Health (DOH) in Western Visayas raised the alert level of this city and province of Negros Occidental to No. 3 after the detection of eight more cases of the more contagious Delta variant of the virus causing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
In Negros Occidental, there were four – a nine-year-old boy from Silay City; a 21-year-old man from La Carlota City; a 79-year-old woman from Pulupandan; and a 69-year-old woman from Valladolid town.
Their genomic sequencing results from the Philippine Genome Center (PGC) were released on Aug. 29.
The boy passed away on Aug. 2, making him the first Delta variant-related fatality in Negros Occidental, according to Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz.
The other three patients have long recovered from COVID-19 but had a repeat reverse transcription polymerase-chain reaction test after their genomic sequencing results were released.
The La Carlota City resident recently travelled to Iloilo while the Pulupandan case recently returned from Rizal province.
In this city, there were four additional Delta variant cases too, according to City Administrator Em Ang, although all have long recovered from the illness.
These were all women – a 55-year-old from Barangay Villamonte; a 78-year-old from Barangay Singcang-Airport; a 25-year-old from Barangay Taculing; and a 31-year-old from Villa Angela Phase II-B, Barangay Vista Alegre.
Their genomic sequencing results were released on Aug. 28.
“The highly contagious Delta variant threatens to drive another surge in COVID cases. Its higher transmissibility means clusters of cases can quickly lead to bigger outbreaks, making it more important for us to keep our guards up,” Ang said.
According to the latest situation report of DOH in Region 6, Negros Occidental’s risk classification has been escalated to “moderate risk” with the average daily attack rate (ADAR) rising to 1.90 from the previous 1.62.
Bacolod’s ADAR also increased from 6.15 last week to 7.82 with the city now under the “high risk” classification.
However, despite the increased ADAR, both Negros Occidental and this city remained “low risk” in terms of overall healthcare utilization rate at 51.07 and 46.33 percent, respectively./PN
