Philippines sees 97 more Delta variant cases

MANILA: A total of 97 more new cases of the deadly and highly transmissible Delta variant of the COVID-19 have been detected, 33 of who were traced to Central Visayas, the Department of Health ( DOH) reported on Thursday.

In a statement, the DOH said the discovery of the new 97 cases brought to 216 the total number of infections blamed on the Delta variant that continues to wreak havoc in much of the world including the US and the UK as well as the country’s neighbours particularly India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand.

But there are concerns from health experts that the number of the Delta strain infections in the Philippines could be higher. They pointed out that the Philippine Genome Center was only sequencing a small percentage of positive cases traced to the variant.

The DOH added that of the new infections, 88 were local cases, six returning overseas Filipino workers ( OFWS) while the remaining six were still being verified. It added that of the six returning OFWS, two were crewmen of a barge and tugboat that sailed to Indonesia to ferry the coal ordered by a cement factory in the Bicol Region. “Ninety four cases have been tagged as recovered,” the DOH reported, “and three were fatalities.

The DOH is coordinating with concerned local government units to gather information such as infections and vaccination status.”

Also on Thursday, the government announced the imposition of the same quarantine status of general community quarantine (GCQ) “with heightened restrictions” on Metro Manila, officially known as the National Capital Region (NCR) with effect for another two weeks from Aug.1-15.

Harry Roque, the presidential spokesman, said President Rodrigo Duterte approved the recommendation of the Inter-agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases for the same quarantine status for NCR Plus, including the provinces of Laguna, Cavite and Rizal in Southern Luzon and Bulacan in Central Luzon.

In a separate media interview, however, Health

Secretary Francisco Duque said the qualification could change, depending, for instance, on whether or not Metro Manila mayors wanted a stricter lockdown.

Duque cited an earlier statement of the mayors of the 16 cities and one town that compose Metro Manila with a total population of more than 13 million, which urged the government to impose stricter lockdowns to contain the threat of the Delta variant. The independent OCTA research group earlier urged the government to impose “hard lockdown” on Metro Manila particularly in the first two weeks of August to help prevent a surge in infections blamed on the Delta variant.