New Covid-19 variant in Pampanga fake news

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO---Governor Dennis “Delta” Pineda yesterday belied and branded as fake news a post circulating on social media that the Department of Health (DOH) allegedly reported three cases of the new Covid-19 strain in Sta. Rita town in Pampanga.

“This is fake news,” Governor Pineda said in response to the post “Sars CoV-2 mutation now in Pampanga Philippines.”

The fake news post claimed that according to the DOH and reports from local government units in Pampanga, the first ever mutated Cov-2 infections have been detected in Sta. Rita town

and that there are now three confirmed cases of the new Covid-19 variant as of Monday, January 4, 2021.

It further alleged that “the DOH said one is still admitted to a specific hospital facility.”

But Governor Pineda stressed that “The Department of Health and Philippine Genome Center itself said that the

variant of the virus caused by COVID-19 is not yet in our country.”

He said that Pampanga is strongly adhering to ongoing travel restrictions imposed by the national government as a measure to avert the entry of the new variant detected in the United Kingdom (UK).

“Because the Philippines

is not allowed to accept passengers from more than 20 countries with variants already, our Balik Pampanga is following travel restrictions until January 15. Let's continue discipline and precautions against COVID-19 so that we can continue to be safe, our family and our fellow citizens,” the governor sai d.