New variant cases in Baguio rise to 57; No delta variant so far but mayor wants city to be proactive

July 10, 2021 Metro BLISTT

BAGUIO CITY – Baguio City has a total of 57 Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) new variant cases as of July 7, 54 of which were Alpha (UK or B 117) and four Beta (South African of B 1351) variants.
Mayor Benjamin Magalong said the Philippine Genome Center in its latest report detected 17 additional cases of Alpha and two more cases of Beta variants in the city.
Age range of the new cases was from 10 months to 83 years old with ten female and nine male. Four of the patients had died and 15 had recovered from the disease.
As per the PGC biosurveillance report, no Delta (Indian) variant has so far been isolated but the mayor had warned of the likelihood that the dread type said to be more severe and more contagious will hit the country and the city at any time.
He had urged various sectors including the medical community to be proactive against the Delta type which is causing havoc in other
countries by coming up with contingency measures to counter its protracted effects on the city’s health care system and response system.
“We have no Delta variant in the country based on PGC report but it may just be because we are not processing all specimens due to limited
capability of our PGC complicated by the lack of reagents and ancillary supplies. So we have to be prepared,” the mayor said.
The city government through the City Health Services Officer under Dr. Rowena Galpo mapped out strategies which include setting up more isolation facilities and beds in anticipation of increased hospitalizations due to the new variant’s propensity to cause more severe symptoms; expediting vaccination, intensifying compliance to the minimum public health standards, among others.
(APR-PIO/ABN)