The City Government of Puerto Princesa through Incident Management Team (IMT) Commander Dr. Dean Palanca announced that considering the spike of COVID-19 cases recorded yesterday and today, January 5, the city is already at the reek of the Omicron variant and will most likely enter into a third surge.
Dr. Dean Palanca, during the City Hall’s live virtual briefing on Wednesday, said that there is a rise in COVID cases following the successive celebrations of Christmas and New Year.
Palanca said that during the last week of Christmas, 300 travelers coming mostly from the National Capital Region (NCR) and different provinces in the country entered Palawan and might have brought along the new variant.
Yesterday, January 4, the City Testing Center has verified 55 new positive cases out of 517 individuals who underwent an antigen testing. 10 out of the recorded 55 cases were locally transmitted while 45 were travelers who went home to the city to spend their holiday breaks.
“Sa kasamaang palad, ito (Omicron) ay nauwi ng ating mga travelers dito sa city,” Palanca said.
The IMT Commander also said this means that the city is slowly coming close to entering a third surge of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He further said that the City Government and other stakeholders against COVID-19 didn’t expect that Omicron wouldn’t enter the city in another two weeks’ time, but given the circumstances of consecutive physical gatherings during the holidays, Palanca theorized that the city is in its initial stage of the third surge.
“Maaring ito na ang mitsa ng ating pagtaas ng kaso. Maaring tanungin niyo ako kung nandito na ang Omicron ang isasagot ko diyan, siguro mga 90% andito na. Wala lang tayong genome testing centers sa PPC. Pero kung ganyan kataas ang pumasok sa atin, positive ‘yan na galing sa labas, maaring pareho na tayo sa Manila na mataas na ang kaso ng Omicron,” Palanca said.
Earlier, he added, that they have additionally tested 64 individuals who have been relayed as close contacts of the initial 55 positive cases recorded yesterday. Out of 64, 24 turned out to be positive via antigen testing, 15 of those 24 individuals are close contacts of holiday travelers who entered the city on December 28-31.
“Hinanap natin ang mga close contact sa mga nag-positive kahapon. 64 ang na-tnest ngayong umaga, 24 ang nag/positive. 15 doon ay close-contact ng ating mga travelers na dumating sa Puerto Princesa, 9 ang local cases,” Palanca said.
This prompted the city government and other stakeholders to call for an emergency meeting Wednesday morning, wherein they discussed additional protocols and preventive measures while gearing up for the third surge of the coronavirus.
Palanca warned city residents to follow the mandated health protocols and avoid getting contact from travelers who recently went home.
“Mag-ingat na po tayo, on the ground. Lalo na kung may nakasalamuha kayong travelers from NCR,” Palanca said.
Discussion about this post