By Froilan Gallardo
Special Correspondent
CAGAYAN de Oro health authorities said they have in their custody the five persons who have been infected with the Delta variant of the Covid-19.
Chief epidemiologist Dr. Jose Retuya said the five patients have fully recovered and were about to be discharged when the Department of Health informed them that they were infected with the highly transmissible variant of the virus.
“We are now reviewing their cases and further observing them,” Retuya said adding they would not be discharged from the two hospitals.
Retuya said as a precaution, the five patients would be transferred to a treatment facility that is dedicated to Delta variant cases.
He said they would also review the patients’ narratives of the people they have been in close contact with.
The DOH reported 11 “local cases” of the 16 additional cases of the infectious Delta variant found in the Philippines.
Of the 11 cases, the DOH said the five, “part of a larger cluster of cases, were found to have originated in Cagayan de Oro and another one in Gingoog City.
This prompted the Covid-19 Inter-Agency Task Force to place the cities Cagayan de Oro and Gingoog under the strictest quarantine control.
Retuya said swab tests on the five patients were sent to the Philippine Genome Center on June 28.
“The patients were randomly tested and these five came out to be positive of the new variant,” Retuya said during the press conference yesterday.
Retuya could not say whether the five patients were infected by somebody from abroad or if they were “local transmissions.”
