LUCENA CITY – One hundred eight new COVID-19 patients were recorded in Quezon province Thursday amid the threat of the highly transmissible Delta variant.
The Quezon Integrated Provincial Health Office (IPHO), in its bulletin issued at 5 p.m. on July 29, reported that the town of Candelaria town in the central part of the province topped the list with 51 new patients, including a 46-year-old woman who died of the disease.
Candelaria also topped the list among the 39 municipalities in the province with the most active cases at 227, from only 177 on Wednesday.
On Thursday, Dr. Grace Santiago, IPHO head, has warned the public to take strict protective measures after a resident of the province has been traced as a close contact of a confirmed COVID-19 Delta variant case in Laguna province.
According to Santiago, the genome sequencing result of the closed contact, whose location in the province she did not specify, will take time due to the heavy testing backlog at the Philippine Genome Center (PGC).
“Kaya kung tutuusin, baka may Delta variant na tayo paglabas ng result. Baka narekober na siya (It is possible that we already have a Delta variant and the person might even have recovered [by the time the result comes out]),” she said on a local television program on Thursday.
Santiago said the close contact has already been isolated in an undisclosed facility.
According to Santiago, it was already late when the person told authorities that he or she was a close contact of the Delta variant patient.
“If the genome sequencing result turned out positive of the variant, baka nakapagkalat na siya (the close contact might have transmitted it to others)” she said.
The Delta variant spreads faster than other COVID-19 variants, health authorities said.
A person positive for the original strain can infect four to five people, but someone positive for the Delta variant can infect up to eight people, according to experts.
Santiago urged residents of the province to strictly observe all COVID-19 safety protocols and not be complacent that the confirmed Delta variant case is in Laguna and not in Quezon.
Quezon, which remains under general community quarantine until August 31, recorded 16,826 COVID-19 cases, with 15,248 recoveries and 753 fatalities since the pandemic struck in March last year.
At least 88 of the total deaths happened between July 1 to 29, according to the report.
The province still has 825 active cases. INQ