Delta now dominant COVID-19 variant in Ilocos region

Ambulances from different areas in Ilocos Sur province that carry COVID-19 patients have to wait for hours outside the provincial hospital for treatment due to bed shortage.(Photo courtesy of Dr. Shara Antonette Cañero/Ilocos Sur provincial hospital)

LAOAG CITY — The Department of Health (DOH) said that the highly transmissible Delta variant has become the dominant COVID-19 variant in the Ilocos region.

Dr. Rheuel Bobis, COVID-19 focal person of DOH in Ilocos, said during a press briefing Friday, October 1, that aside from Delta, the region had already detected the presence of COVID-19 variants Alpha, Beta, and P.3.

Of the 301 confirmed cases of the four COVID-19 variants, 144, or 48 percent, were Delta cases. These were followed by 86 Alpha cases, 68 Beta cases, and three P.3. cases, according to Bobis.

Ilocos Norte province had the highest number of Delta cases at 49, followed by Pangasinan (40), Dagupan City (25), Ilocos Sur (20), and La Union (10).

Meanwhile, total COVID-19 bed occupancy rate in the Ilocos region is at “moderate” risk, with 66-percent of the 2,451 beds devoted to COVID-19 patients occupied as of September 30, Bobis said.

While the intensive care unit (ICU) beds in the region were also at 66 percent occupied, which is considered “moderate level,” added Bobis.

Bobis, however, said that the agency is monitoring the provinces of Ilocos Sur and La Union and Dagupan City which had registered a “high” risk level of COVID-19 bed utilization in the previous weeks.

EDV