Quezon still Omicron-free, says health exec

Dr. Tiong Eng Roland Tan | PHOTO: Governor Danilo E. Suarez’s official facebook page

LUCENA CITY–Despite the continued surge in COVID-19 cases, Quezon province remained free of the highly infectious Omicron variant, a provincial health official said.

“We don’t have any [cases of the] Omicron variant,” Dr. Tiong Eng Roland Tan, Integrated Provincial Health Office (IPHO) officer-in-charge, said in an interview Wednesday, Jan. 19.

Tan said they have been sending specimens to the University of the Philippines-Philippine Genome Center for genome sequencing.

“We’ve been monitoring (COVID-19 patients), but they were already tested negative and have completed their quarantine and isolation period,” he explained.

He assured the public that the IPHO had been coordinating closely with the Department of Health (DOH) and Bureau of Quarantine for the Omicron variant in the province.

According to the DOH, the country now has 535 confirmed cases of the Omicron variant among those sequenced.

Tan lamented the poor adherence to minimum health standards of the public.

He also noted that some workers still go to work even if they are not feeling well. “Hindi nagsasabi ng totoong nararamdaman (They don’t reveal their real condition),” Tan said.

In its bulletin on Wednesday, the IPHO reported 140 new COVID-19 cases, raising the number of active infections across the province to 1,711.

From Jan. 1 to 19, Quezon recorded 2,419 new patients, a big increase from the December tally of 64 and 211 in November. The province had only nine active cases on Dec. 22 last year.

During the same period, the IPHO listed 705 recoveries, of which 425 were recorded from Jan. 17 to 19.

Health authorities also recorded 16 fatalities related to COVID-19 this month.

Of 41 areas in the province, only San Andres, Pitogo, Jomalig, and Panukulan towns had no recorded COVID-19 cases as of Jan. 19.

The local governments with active virus cases jumped to 37 from six on Dec. 27, 2021.

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