Iloilo City ramps up measures against Delta variant

Iloilo City government has ramped up additional measures against the highly transmissible Delta variant of COVID-19.

Mayor Jerry Treñas led an emergency meeting with the Iloilo City Covid-19 Team and representatives of city hospitals on Friday, July 23, 2021, to discuss additional measures to slow down the spread of the Delta variant.

“With the entry of the Delta variant in the country, I met with various hospitals in the city to discuss the measures we can do to secure the safety of our people. We must prepare our resources ahead for the protection of those who may be infected by this variant,” Treñas said in a statement Friday.

During the meeting, the mayor said they decided to ramp up more quarantine facilities and medical personnel.

Apart from quarantine facilities, the authorities agreed to increase medical supplies in the metro such as personal protective equipment (PPE), oxygen, and high flow cannula among others; and additional isolation and ICU beds for Covid-19 positive patients.

“We agreed for the continuous advisory that moderate and mild COVID patients should be managed in the district hospitals and our quarantine facilities so that the hospitals can take care of the severe and other patients who need hospital care,” Treñas said.

The city government will also speed up the COVID-19 vaccination roll-out and look for more vaccines.

The Department of Health (DOH) has already detected the Delta variant in the province of Antique.

The Delta variant which originated from India is 51 to 67% more transmissible than the Alpha variant or UK variant, according to experts.

The Alpha variant on the other hand is 50% more transmissible from the original COVID-19 variant first detected in China.

Recently, Iloilo and Guimaras province also detected other variants of concern in their areas particularly Alpha, Beta, and Theta.

On Thursday night, the Department of Health confirmed the local transmission of the Delta variant which was first detected in India, where it caused thousands of infections and deaths.

The same variant is also reason for the upsurge in infections and deaths in Indonesia, which is now the epicenter of the pandemic in Asia. (ERS)