Eight patients of the Delta variant of the coronavirus here have recovered and their close contacts contained.
The eight were confirmed after the Department of Health (DOH) informed the city government of the report of samples taken by the Philippine Genome Center (PGC), Mayor Oscar Moreno said in an online press briefing on Thursday.
They are seven family members in Barangay Balulang, all recovered on July 15; and a Barangay Canitoan resident, who recovered on July 18.
“All (eight cases) of them were certified recovered when DOH-10 released their swab samples. They will be extracted and placed immediately in isolation again while contact tracing is ongoing by our teams at the City Health Office (CHO),” Moreno said.
Acting CHO head Dr. William Bernardo said the eight were certified recovered when they received the results of the swab samples.
“All of them were at their homes when we called them for re-isolation and they were cooperative. We will test them again after two weeks while contact tracing is ongoing,” he said.
CHO medical officer Dr. Ted Yu said contact tracing has been expanded to include third-generation contacts.
“All swab samples of the eight cases were sent to the PGC last July 7 and their results were released last July 25,” he said.
Lockdowns unnecessary
Meanwhile, Moreno said extreme lockdowns while the city is under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) would only result in fatigue and burnout among police and medical personnel.
The Inter-Agency Task Force first placed the city under ECQ on July 16. The status has been extended until August 7.
“The police are already working 24/7 patrolling the city’s streets to ensure strict compliance to health protocols and with their limited numbers, some people would think the police can cover (every corner of the city’s 80 barangays). What’s important is for all of us to help each other instead of just saying lockdown, lockdown,” Moreno said.
He said even when the city was under modified general community quarantine, he issued 36 executive orders imposing localized containments in certain areas of the city, starting with Sitio Pinikitan, Barangay Camaman-an in April last year after a Covid-19 patient’s death.
“But we found it’s better to simply isolate the patient and his/her personal contacts,” he added.
Source: Philippines News Agency
