ILIGAN CITY (PIA)--The City Health Office (CHO) here confirmed Monday, August 16, that the city already recorded two cases of the Delta variant.

“Ipaabot nato sa katawhan nga confirmed nga sa Iligan City, aduna nay positive sa Delta. Siguro, kaning surge nato, posible naa gyapoy Delta but medyo dugay man gyud iconfirm ang Delta kay ipadala pa lage [ang specimen] sa Manila, either sa RITM (Research Institute for Tropical Medicine) or sa UP (University of the Philippines)-Philippine Genome Center,” said CHO-Emergency Operation Center (EOC) Health Cluster Manager Dr. Belinda Lim in a public briefing.

[We would like to relay to the citizenry its confirmed Iligan City has already Delta positive. Maybe, this surge, it is possible that there is Delta but the confirmation is a little bit delayed because [the specimen] will still be sent to Manila, either to RITM (Research Institute for Tropical Medicine) or UP (University of the Philippines)-Philippine Genome Center.]

Lim said it was on Sunday, August 15, when they received information from the Department of Health Region (DOH)-10 regarding the two Delta-positive cases.

Accordingly, the specimens of such were retrieved from the Amai Pakpak Medical Center, a COVID-19 referral hospital in Marawi City, but all were logged as cases of Iligan City as they are residents of the locality, specifically of Barangay Tomas Cabili.

Lim said the index case or the first documented patient was a 29-year old male government employee coming from Quezon City and as per record, COVID-19 symptoms appeared on July 8 and two days later, July 10, he traveled to Iligan City.

Because of the reported symptoms, he underwent a swab test and the positive result was released on July 14.

“After two to three days, nisunod dayon iyang pamilya ug ang total [members] naadmit sa iyang family, eight kabook… Ang natakdan niya is iyang father, duha ka igsoon niya nga babae, duha ka igsoon niya nga lalake ug usa niya ka nephew. Kini si usa ka igsoon, duna siyay close friend. Kini si friend ug kini siya [si index case], maoy nagpositive sa Delta,” said Lim.

[After two to three days, his family followed and the total [members] of his family admitted are eight… He infected his father, two sisters, two brothers, and a nephew. His sibling has a close friend. This friend and this [index case] were the ones positive for Delta.]

With the detection, the DOH instructed to initiate contact tracing again to the involved residents to confirm if their close contacts, up to the third generation, have been or not symptomatic, otherwise, swab testing will be conducted on these people.

Lim stated that the index case was already released to the community on July 28 and has already returned to Quezon City for his work while his father remains positive as of the latest reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test Friday, August 6.

On the other hand, the other Delta-positive case showed no significant transmission and close contacts as he just stayed at home most of the time.

As the city now reported such cases of the highly transmissible variant, Lim called on the public to treat the recently issued Executive Order 192 as an advance action amid the threat of the virus.

“Kung pwede, masabtan sa katawhan nga katong executive order ni Mayor, advance thinking gyud to niya. Salamat kaayo sa iyang advance thinking nga medyo gyud higpit, maong giprohibit gyud ang mass gatherings ug uban pang mga limitations,” said Lim.

[If possible, citizens should understand that the executive order of the Mayor, was his advanced thinking. Thank you so much for his advanced thinking that is quite strict, that is why mass gatherings are prohibited, along with other limitations.)

Per the latest COVID-19 briefer 3:00 PM Monday, August 16, there were 54 new cases and 23 recoveries leading to a total of 265 active cases. (CRG/PIA-ICIC)