Puerto Princesa City Incident Management Team (PPC-IMT) Commander Dr. Dean Palanca confirms that their office has logged a total of 4 South African COVID-19 or Beta variants in the city yesterday, August 9, as the Philippine Genome Center (PGC) reported back to their office an additional 2 cases of Beta (South African) variant bringing the total number to 4.
“Kahapon po ay may panibagong 2 kaso po tayo ng Beta variant na ni-report ng Philippine Genome Center. Ibig sabihin mayroon na tayong 4 na confirmed cases ng Beta variant o yung tinatawag nating South African Variant.”
He also said they are suspecting that this variant was the cause of the spike in COVID-19 cases in the past few months. “‘Yan din ang tingin naming na nag-cause ng ating grabeng outbreak nitong April, May, June at patapos ng July ‘no. At humigit kumulang umabot tayo ng more than 7,300 ang kaso natin dahil din diyan sa South [African] variant,” said Dr. Palanca.
He added that all the swab samples gathered for testing are not sent to PGC hence they are not able to confirm the exact numbers of people infected by this variant because it is the only laboratory that tests for other variants.
“Actually po, ang gumagawa nun is isang opisina lang din sa manila eh halos lahat po ng mga lugar sa buong Pilipinas nagpapadala sila sa kanila so talagang hindi rin nila kakayanin ‘pag ginawa natin yun. Kaya kami dito at random lang din yung pagpapadala namin. Hindi rin nila kakayanin talaga yung ganung wave.”
Currently, the total number of RT-PCR active cases is 62 while there are 59 Antigen Positive cases, bringing the total of COVID-19 active cases in the city to 121.
On the other hand, the Local Government is preparing in the event of an outbreak of the Delta variant, a deadlier variant of the virus in the sense of transmissibility and susceptibility.