Twenty-nine out of the 32 coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) Omicron variant cases here have recovered, the city health office (CHO) reported Tuesday.
In an online briefer, Dr. Ted Yu Jr., CHO medical officer, said the remaining three also tested negative in their reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction tests but are still awaiting official release orders.
He said of the 32 Omicron cases – 21 females and 11 males – 31 are local cases and one is a returning overseas Filipino (ROF).
Yu said five of the cases are from Balulang village; three cases from the villages of Kauswagan, Nazareth, Iponan, and Cugman; and two cases each from the villages of Patag, Carmen, Macabalan, and Gusa.
Also, the villages of San Simon, Puntod, Bulua Macasandig, Bugo, Lapasan and Indahag had one case each of the variant.
The specimen samples of the cases were collected on January 7 for the ROF and on January 15-16 for the local cases.
The local government received the results from the Philippine Genome Center on Monday, February 14.
Yu said the latest batch of the Omicron variant came from different households, and that there was also no close contact from the first seven cases recorded in the city.
“The best thing here in these 32 new cases, there were no cases who are from the same households. They are from different addresses unlike the Delta variant where there were cases who are from the same households,” he said.
On February 2, the city government reported the first batch of Omicron cases in the city, composed of seven cases.
All of them have also recovered from the variant and all of their first-generation close contacts were not impacted by the Omicron strain.
The CHO has so far tallied 39 Omicron cases, 35 of which are tagged from this city.
Vaccination of kids
Meanwhile, the city has recorded 790 children aged five to 11 years old who received their first dose during the first day of the pediatric vaccination against Covid-19 on Monday.
Yu said of the total vaccinated children, 730 are without comorbidities while 60 have comorbidities.
The city government, in coordination with the Department of Health – Northern Mindanao (DOH-10) launched the pediatric vaccination at SM Downtown Premier for children sans comorbidities and at JR Borja General Hospital for those who have medical concerns.
After the launching on February 14, the CHO and the DOH-10 also launched the 5-11 years old vaccination Tuesday at Centrio Ayala Mall.
Yu reminded the parents to register their children for vaccination under the age group as they only cater to individuals who received text messages from the city government.
“It’s very important that parents must pre-register their children as we do not have ‘walk-in’ for five to 11 years old Covid-19 vaccination. We will prioritize those children who have pre-registered,” he said.
Yu appealed to the parents for their participation as the city has a 55,000 target population for the pediatric group and they only tallied some 10,000 pre-registered children so far.
He said parents who would want to register their children could go to the link: services.cagayandeoro.gov.ph:8087/vaccprereg and choose category E1.0 for children who do not have comorbidities and category E1.1 for children who have comorbidities.
Source: Philippines News Agency
