7 more COVID-19 patients die in Quezon; death toll hits 760

LUCENA CITY — Seven more people died from COVID-19 in Quezon, bringing the province’s death toll to 760, health authorities said.

Two of the new fatalities were from Tayabas City, and one each in the towns of Candelaria, Dolores, Sariaya, Pagbilao, and Lucena City, the Integrated Provincial Health Office (IPHO) reported at 5 p.m. Friday.

No other details were made available on the latest COVID-19 deaths.

At least 95 of the total deaths or an average of three fatalities daily, happened between July 1 to 30, according to the report.

Lucena, the capital city of Quezon which is under general community quarantine with heightened restrictions until August 15, has the highest number of fatalities at 140.

The province still has 793 active cases as of Friday, down from the 825 recorded on Thursday.

Candelaria topped the list among the 39 municipalities and two cities in the province with the most active cases at 201, from 227 on Thursday and only 177 on Wednesday.

As of July 30, Quezon, which remains under general community quarantine until August 31, recorded 16,872 COVID-19 cases and 15,319 recoveries since the pandemic struck in March last year.

Dr. Grace Santiago, IPHO head, has warned the public on Thursday 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).

The close contact has been isolated in an undisclosed facility.

Santiago warned that if the genome sequencing result turned out positive of the highly transmissible Delta variant, “the close contact might have transmitted it to others.”

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 was in Laguna and not in Quezon.