Two Delta variant cases detected in Bacolod city

By Dolly Yasa

BACOLOD City – Mayor Evelio Leonardia on Friday morning confirmed reports that two cases of COVID-19 Delta variant were detected in the city.

In a statement posted early Friday morning by the City Public Information Office, Leonardia said that the City Mayor’s Office and the Emergency Operations Center-Task Force received reports from the Department of Health that two city residents tested positive for the Delta variant as indicated by the result of the genome sequencing conducted by the Philippine Genome Center.

“It is very unfortunate that this development came about at a time when our coronavirus infections are on a steady decline the past two weeks and our vaccination rollout is going full swing. These are challenging times, indeed, as COVID-19 spread remains unpredictable as experienced also anywhere in the world,” the mayor said.

The first case of the Delta variant is a 71-year-old male resident of Barangay Banago who is said to be asymptomatic. He was swabbed July 15, 2021.

Five members of his household were also positive with mild symptoms, based on their RT-PCR tests, but none of them was admitted to the hospital, Leonardia said.

The second Delta case is a 32-year-old pregnant woman from Barangay Sum-ag who was swabbed on July 19, 2021 as requirement for pregnant women at 36 weeks of pregnancy onwards.

She has no travel history and is also asymptomatic.

Her husband works at a local hospital and is also asymptomatic, having been fully vaccinated with Sinovac.

Four other household members were asymptomatic as well.

The mayor said that upon receiving confirmation from health authorities, he immediately ordered for localized containment measures/surgical lockdown of the residential areas in Sum-ag and Banago, where the two patients and their families reside.

Such moves are in full effect while our medical experts and the EOC are further looking into the situation, he added.

“Let me further assure the public that extensive contact-tracing efforts are being made by our medical team. Re-swabbing or repeat swabbing, as per NIATF and DOH policy, are also being made,” Leonardia said.