Bacolod City – Dr. Edwin Miraflor, officer-in-charge of the City Health Office, made the clarification after reports surfaced identifying Bacolod as having recorded the more transmissible variant.
“We don’t have the Delta variant in Bacolod, according to the Regional Epidemiology Surveillance Unit reports,” Miraflor said in a statement issued through the city government.
He added that recorded in Bacolod were cases of Covid-19 Alpha, Beta, and Theta, or P.3 variants, although he did not provide the figures.
Dr. Daphne Teorima, spokesperson of the Department of Health-Western Visayas, also said yesterday that they have only recorded four cases of the highly-contagious Delta variant in Iloilo province with two, and one each in Iloilo City and Antique.
But the DOH confirmed earlier the three cases of Covid-19 Alpha and Beta variants in Negros Occidental, that it classified as variants of concern because of their increased transmissibility, although lesser compared to the Delta variant.
The DOH also advised local executives and health officials to impose granular lockdowns as needed to contain case spikes in areas detected with Covid-19 variants.
Moreover, results of the whole genomic sequencing should not be used for individual case management, it added, stressing also that management and treatment of different variants should remain the same.
Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson earlier admitted that they are not ready in case the Delta variant comes into Negros Occidental, although they are preparing for it.
(Gilbert Bayoran via The Visayan Daily Star, photo courtesy of Bacolod City Public Information Office)
