La Union’s capital city detects first COVID-19 Delta variant case

LAOAG CITY—The presence of the highly transmissible COVID-19 Delta variant has been detected in the capital city of San Fernando in La Union province, Mayor Hermenegildo Gualberto said on Saturday.

Gualberto said that the detection of the variant in the province was confirmed by the Department of Health in the Ilocos region.

The first Delta variant case in the city had already been tagged as “fully recovered,” according to the city’s COVID-19 technical working group on Sunday.

The mayor said that confirmed detection of the Delta variant came at a time when the number of COVID-19 cases in the city had been spiking in the previous weeks.

In response to the detection of the variant, Gualberto said that the COVID-19 task force in the city would intensify its testing and contact tracing efforts and expand the city’s vaccination coverage.

He asked local residents to strictly adhere to minimum health protocols to contain the spread of the virus.

As of September 24, the city has a 1,005 active COVID-19 cases, according to the data from the city government.