Puerto Princesa City Incident Management Team Commander Dr. Dean Palanca confirmed today, September 23, 2021, on an interview on Chris ng Bayan that there is a possibility of implementing a stricter quarantine classification due to increase of COVID-19 cases in the city.
Dr. Palanca said that their office logs an average of 50 to 70 daily cases since the beginning of the month but yesterday, September 22, 2021, they recorded more than 100 individuals positive in COVID-19.
He also shared that they recorded 6 deaths due to COVID-19 where 4 are unvaccinated, 1 received only one dose of vaccine, and 1 fully vaccinated individual.
The City IMT Commander says that it is possible that the Delta variant is now in the city and province as COVID-19 cases in the municipalities are also increasing hence it is possible that their office will give a recommendation to change the quarantine classification to a stricter one.
“…maaaring nandito na ang ating delta variant na kinatatakutan kasi tumataas na yung kaso natin. Wag natin hintayin kung kumpirmado pa…nakikita natin na tumataas yung kaso natin sa Puerto [Princesa City] at sa labas ng Puerto Princesa…at ang mga ospital papuno na rin po right now sila nagsisimula palang tayo sa surge natin,” Dr. Palanca said in an interview on Chris ng Bayan.
The authorities are worrying that the Delta variant might already be going around because of the increase of people infected with the virus. However, they are not able to confirm this because the Philippine Genome Center (PGC) has stopped accepting swab samples from all over the country for two consecutive weeks now for the reason of having too many samples being received.
Currently, the City IMT is still waiting for the swab samples sent to PCG almost more than a month ago. There are 9 swab samples in total that are waiting for confirmation.
Meanwhile, as of September 22, 2021, Puerto Princesa City has a total of 521 active cases, 129 tested positive for the RT-PCR test and 392 RAT reactive, which brings the total confirmed cases to 3,075.