THE world is a lot different now a year and a half since the Covid-19 pandemic broke out. And so does the coronavirus.
With more than hundreds of millions of people around the world, including 1.6 million Filipinos, the Sars-CoV-2 virus constantly changes, making small tweaks in its genetic code as it goes along transmitting from host to host.
Before the end of 2020, new strains of the Covid-19 virus have been discovered throughout the world — infecting millions of individuals.
New variants have taken over from the virus’ earlier forms — like the highly contagious Delta variant that is currently throwing a wrench in our “new normal.”
The Delta (B.1.617.2) variant of Sars-CoV-2 was first detected in India in October 2020.
According to the World Health Organization, it is believed to be 60 percent more contagious than the Alpha (B.1.1.7) variant, which was first detected in the United Kingdom.
Public Health England (PHE) in May 2021 observed secondary attack rates to be 51 to 67 percent higher than the Alpha variant. In a June technical briefing, the Delta variant was linked to a roughly doubling of the risk of hospitalization.
Delta variant’s road to the Philippines
The most transmissible of the variants identified so far, it has now been found in 135 countries, including the Philippines.
Health officials said it has been detected in nine out of 17 regions and government response is based on the assumption that there is already community transmission, as indicated by soaring cases and rising hospitalizations.
Three months since its first appearance in the country, it is now responsible for some 450 cases nationwide.
Prior to its detection in the country, the Philippine government imposed a travel ban from India in an attempt to delay the entry of the Delta variant on April 27, 2021.
Travel ban has been extended to its neighboring countries Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal.
On May 11, 2021, the first two Delta cases in the Philippines were logged from the specimens of two returning overseas Filipinos (ROFs), a 37-year-old male who arrived in the Philippines from Oman on April 10 and a 58-year-old male who arrived from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on April 19. Both had no travel history to India and both arrived before any travel restrictions were imposed.
As of August 5, 450 specimens had been confirmed to have tested positive with the Delta variant, wherein 12 are active cases. Of the number, 428 have recovered and nine succumbed to the virus.
Delta variant in Davao Region
Out of the 450, six were detected in Davao Region. All of them were tagged as recovered.
DOH-Davao confirmed on Sunday evening, July 25, that the two Delta variant-infected specimens were from Tagum City in Davao del Norte and Davao City.
“Both were tagged as recovered already but still need to be isolated due to pending repeat RT-PCR [reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction] tests,” DOH-Davao said in a statement.
The news was first broken out by Tagum City Health Office Chief Dr. Arnel Florendo on July 24, 2021. Florendo said the patient, who had no travel history outside the city, was also tagged as F1 after being in close contact with a confirmed positive patient. He said the patient, who had mild symptoms and has already recovered, is fully immunized.
The Davao City government, meanwhile, confirmed in a statement two days after.
Davao City Covid-19 Task Force spokesperson Dr. Michelle Schlosser said the 28-year-old female was swabbed on June 26, 2021, after her exposure to a confirmed symptomatic Covid-19 case at her workplace.
Schlosser said the Davao City Health Office received the confirmatory results of the surveillance test from the University of the Philippines-Philippine Genome Center (UP-PGC) on July 24.
The patient completed the required isolation period of 14 days and has since recovered. Before her exposure, the patient received her first dose of the anti-Covid-19 vaccine and three days after her isolation, the second dose of the vaccine.
On July 31, 2021, two additional Delta variant cases were detected in the region — all from Davao City. The specimens were sent on July 15.
Based on the patients’ profiles, one is a 47-year-old male and was previously tagged as discharged on July 19. As of July 30, he was transported back to a temporary treatment and monitoring facility (TTMF) pending his reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test results.
The other identified case is a 36-year-old female who was discharged on July 21. As of July 29, 2021, she was transported and isolated in TTMF with pending RT-PCR test results.
Schlosser said the two additional cases were exposed to an index case in their respective household.
Recently, on August 6, 2021, two additional Covid-19 Delta variant cases were detected in Davao Region.
The two positive specimens came from Davao City and Davao del Sur and were among the 116 additional cases with the highly contagious Delta variant that have been detected in seven regions on Thursday, August 5.
DOH-Davao said the fifth Delta case in the region is a 37-year-old male from Davao City who was swabbed last July 6 and was tagged as recovered last July 16. This is the fourth confirmed Delta case in Davao City.
Meanwhile, the sixth Delta case in the region is a patient from Davao del Sur who was swabbed on July 10 and was tagged as recovered on July 23. The patient is currently being quarantined in a facility. This is the first confirmed Delta case in Davao del Sur.
In the meantime, DOH-Davao is closely coordinating with the local government units for appropriate management.
Alarm raised over Delta variant
Florendo said they are currently doing backtracking of the close contact of the Delta variant-infected patient in the city.
While this has yet to be confirmed, he said the highly infectious Delta might have caused the surge in cases in the city for the past weeks.
“Although there were also the Alpha and Beta variants in Tagum City, which are also suspects for the increasing cases, we cannot deny that there was also this Delta variant. It’s also possible that it contributed to the surge,” Florendo said in the vernacular during a virtual presser.
Since June this year, Tagum has topped the DOH-Davao data with the most active cases and weekly recorded new cases in the municipality and district count.
Florendo said they already noted a slow downtrend of active cases in the city, and they are hoping that they can now control the surge.
Meanwhile, in Davao City, Schlosser said among the four with Delta variants, three of them had no history of travel outside the city.
Dr. Rachel Joy Pasion, Regional Epidemiology Surveillance Unit head of the DOH-Davao, said the first two confirmed cases and their first and second-generation close contact had also no history of travel outside the region and had no contact with any ROF.
“So we should consider it as a local transmission na here sa atong (in the) region,” Pasion said.
Regardless of the variant, both Schlosser and Pasion reiterated the continuous compliance of the minimum health protocol, and to have themselves vaccinated once it is their turn.
Measures in combating Delta
Amid the recent detection of the highly infectious variant, no local government unit (LGU) in the region is appealing for a higher quarantine status.
The Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) placed the entire Davao Region under general community quarantine (GCQ), but some areas will be placed under heightened restrictions. Davao City, Davao del Norte, Davao de Oro, and Davao Occidental will be under GCQ with heightened restrictions until August 15. Davao Oriental and Davao del Sur will be under GCQ with no restrictions until the end of the month.
Instead, LGUs are told to strengthen their border control, contact tracing, expanding hospital and TTMF capacity, and imposing other quarantine restrictions.
Schlosser said the city already experienced a surge of cases prior to the detection of the Delta variant.
“We have had increases of numbers even pa we started having increases of number in May, June, July. So we attribute that as baka andito na talaga ang variant (maybe the variant is already here), we weren’t able to test lang,” she said.
They noted, however, a decrease in active cases in the city in the past weeks.
Schlosser attributed the pre-existing strategies and policies way before the surge as the reason for the decline of active cases. These include the expanded contact tracing, mandatory swabbing of all closed contacts, and the mandatory RT-PCR test result for individuals arriving in the city via Francisco Bangoy International Airport (Davao International Airport), and the city’s land checkpoint.
“We are not lenient in our strategies nor aming pagpapatupad ng health protocols on the ground level,” she said.
Pasion said DOH continues to send samples for genomic sequencing, a process that allows the identification of the Sars-CoV-2 variant and monitors how it changes over time into new variants. It also aims to study how these changes affect the characteristics of the virus and use this information to better understand how it might impact health.
Unlike RT-PCR, genomic sequencing is a tedious process wherein results are released in three to four weeks.
With this, Pasion said all confirmed Covid-19 specimens must be treated as “Delta variant-positive.”
Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio said DOH conducted a series of meetings regarding the city’s first Delta case and they were given instructions on how to move forward in addressing it.
“First, immediately locate the cases. Get updated clinical and laboratory data. If the case is admitted to a facility, make sure he/she is correctly isolated. If the case is already at home, facilitate quarantine in a facility. If asymptomatic and with negative RT-PCR, may be discharged,” the mayor said.
Duterte-Carpio said the city will conduct increased detection and ensure immediate isolation and quarantine, and continuous case surveillance and testing.
Department of the Interior and Local Government-Davao Region (DILG-Davao) Director Alex Roldan said local government units should intensify their border control points in response to the recent detection of the highly infectious Delta variant.
He also said the Joint Regional Interagency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases-Regional Task Force Against Covid-19 (RIATF-RTF)-Davao Resolution 01 series of 2021 still takes effect.
The resolution was published on May 3 after the body approved uniform guidelines to regulate entry and exit in regional borders of the region.
According to the resolution, tourists and returning residents who are non-authorized persons outside residence (non-Apor) who will enter Davao Region will now be required to secure negative RT-PCR test results.
Rising cases and vaccination
The rising number of infections coincided with the ongoing vaccine rollout in the country. With this, both DOH and the LGUs are hoping that many Dabawenyos would be vaccinated to deal with the growing number of infections brought about by the Delta variant.
DOH-Davao Director assured that all anti-Covid-19 vaccines issued with emergency use authorization (EUA) can fight the Delta variant.
Regardless of the vaccine, the public should have themselves vaccinated for additional protection against Covid-19, especially with the recent detection of the highly infectious Delta variant.
Yumang added that all vaccines issued with EUA can fight the Delta variant.
“Now more than ever, we need a national government-enabled response, local government-led response, and people-centered-response. No single strategy is enough to protect the people and our health care system. We need a layer of protection against the Delta variant,” she said.
