Returning workers raise Bulacan’s Delta variant cases

BORDER CONTROL Motorists are stuck along MacArthur Highway at the Malolos-Guiginto boundary in Bulacan on Aug. 3 due to strict border controls to prevent the entry of those without negative swab test results. —CARMELA REYES-ESTROPE

CITY OF MALOLOS, Bulacan, Philippines — The number of Bulacan residents who contracted the feared Delta variant of the coronavirus disease has risen to seven traced to returning residents, health officials disclosed.

The four new cases recorded in the towns of Pandi and Guiguinto, and the cities of Malolos and San Jose del Monte involved migrant and domestic workers, said Dr. Hjordis Marushka Celis, vice chair of the Bulacan COVID-19 Task Force, on Saturday.

The San Jose del Monte patient is employed in Metro Manila, said city health officer Dr. Betzaida Banaag, while Pandi Mayor Enrico Roque said their Delta patient was an employee of a television broadcasting company also in the national capital. Guiguinto Mayor Ambrosio Cruz Jr. said their Delta patient was an overseas Filipino worker (OFW).

The province’s first three Delta cases were also returning workers. Sta. Maria hospitals treated an OFW while the Delta patient in Plaridel was a Metro Manila worker.

Bulacan’s first Delta case, a resident of San Ildefonso town, was suspected to have caught the more contagious form of COVID-19 when he underwent a medical examination in Manila.

Despite the presence of the Delta variant in the province, many of its mayors indicated they would not want their communities under a stricter enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) or a modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ). But these towns have resorted to heightened restrictions while under general community quarantine (GCQ).

In Guiguinto, Cruz suspended dine-in services at local restaurants and directed all food establishments to instead offer takeout or delivery services. He also restored market day schedules to reduce movement from the barangays.

But Gov. Daniel Fernando said he would ask the national pandemic task force to place Bulacan under the strictest ECQ or MECQ if COVID-19 cases would continue to rise. The province is now under GCQ with enhanced restrictions until Aug. 15.

Bulacan has logged 46,351 COVID-19 cases since March last year, 958 of whom have died.

Apayao, too

In the Cordillera, Apayao province reported its first Delta infection in Pudtol town on Friday.

The patient had already recovered from COVID-19 last month before the latest gene sequencing results detected the variant. But epidemiological teams there have been busy tracking down people who have interacted with the Delta patient, according to the Aug. 6 post of Gov. Eleanor Bulut-Begtang.

Apayao is the second Cordillera province to record Delta, which was first detected in a migrant worker returning to Abra province.

As of Friday, the mountain region still has 1,454 active cases, out of 44,614 patients recorded since last year.

—CARMELA REYES-ESTROPE