NEGROS Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson has again warned Negrenses that the Delta variant of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) is already lurking around in the province.
“It doesn’t matter anymore what the variant is, the concern is the virus that is still here,” Lacson said, adding that people will still need to observe minimum health protocols.
“It’s more of disciplined behavior already on our part, such as avoiding gatherings,” the governor said.
Lacson said Negros Occidental is now experiencing what appears to be a surge in Covid-19 cases, citing an increasing number of active cases in the past two weeks.
He said more contagious variants are present in Negros Occidental and the province already logged two fatalities of the highly infectious Delta variant, which included a 40-year-old returning overseas Filipino in San Carlos City and a 9-year-old boy in Silay City.
Both died a month ago and the results of the sequencing of their samples were only released recently by the Philippine Genome Center.
Negros Occidental logged 1, 156 active Covid-19 cases, with six reported deaths as of Monday, September 6, from its lowest figure of more than 600 last month.
Meanwhile, the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) for Covid-19 received a confirmation from the Provincial Health Office, after the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) relayed the result from the Philippine Genome Center, that a Covid-19 Delta variant was detected from a specimen of a mortality case from San Carlos City.
The patient, who was a returning overseas Filipino from Bahrain with comorbidity, succumbed to death due to the complications of such disease after being rushed to Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital in Bacolod City on August 12, 2021.
Dr. Jessa Tiapon, head of the EOC Cluster on Health Management, predicated this news and has instructed the Contact Tracing Cluster and Containment Cluster to immediately coordinate with concerned barangays to advise the close contacts to resume with the preventive quarantine while waiting for further advisory.
Meanwhile, San Carlos City Mayor Renato Gustilo consistently reminds the public to never compromise health and safety protocols in order to not jeopardize the health and well-being of everyone.
Gustilo, in a statement, said “with or without the Delta variant, we have to help our city and the community by strictly following the protocols for the protection of everyone. (TDE)