Health authorities in Puerto Princesa believe that the current COVID-19 virus variant going around now is the feared Delta as active cases in the city increased extensively.
During the live update of the City Information Office on September 26, 2021, Incident Management Team Commander Dr. Dean Palanca said that all the warning signs of the Delta COVID-19 variant are seen by health authorities wiht the current spike in cases.
“And we think na dahil ganito po kabilis, pati mga bata ngayon nagkakaroon ng sakit, nadadala sa ospital at nagkakaroon po ng pulmonya dahil sa COVID. So it is a warning sign at we think na it is the Delta variant na po ang nandito sa Puerto Princesa,” Palanca theorized.
He also stated that they have yet to confirm this as the Philippine Genome Center (PCG) has not yet communicated any result of the swab samples sent more than a month ago.
Palanca said they will still wait for the official confirmation of the Department of Health (DOH) if indeed the Delta variant has entered the City. “Hihintayin pa rin po natin ang confirmation po ng ating Department of Health pero ang mga signs and symptoms, ‘yung mga sabi nga natin ‘yung mga red flag na nangyayari right now, it points to [a] Delta variant infection,” he stated.
He added that those infected are mostly entire households with all members of the family getting the disease in only a matter of days.
Base on their data forecast, it is plausible that the cases might reach up to 3,000 to 4,000 in the succeeding weeks. In addition, they are estimating mortality of 28 in just two weeks, from October 1 to 14, with an average of 2 deaths per day of mostly unvaccinated older adults age ranging from 50 years old and above.
“So right now meron tayong…nasa 8,000 na yung cases natin ‘no pero makikita niyo pataas na siya ng pataas. At aabot po tayo ng bagong kaso hanggang sa October 14 o October 15. Tatabo tayo sa almost 5,000 kaso sa isang active case,” he said.
“…kung ganito pa rin ang ating pattern hanggang sa 20 days from now, aabot tayo hanggang 4,000 active cases. Hindi po namin kakayanin yan kasi almost 1,000 ang kaya lang natin handle-an sa ating mga isolation and quarantine facilities,” he added.
Meanwhile, the occupancy rate for moderate to severe cases of Coop Hospital is at 67%, Ospital ng Palawan at 93%, and Adventist Hospital at 70%, while asymptomatic and Ccs of the 9 IMT Isolation Facilities is at 93%.
The IMT Commander warned the public that there is already an ongoing queue of one-to-one and a half-day for hospital admissions as municipalities in the province with outbreaks are also sending patients with severe symptoms of COVID-19 to the hospitals in the city.
As of September 25, 2021, there is a total of 245 mortalities were recorded in the city. 176 were RT-PCR confirmed, 66 Antigen reactive and 3 COVID suspects.
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