Quezon City forms Delta variant task force

MANILA, Philippines — The Quezon City government has formed a task force to prepare the city for a possible surge in COVID-19 cases due to the more infectious Delta variant.

The task force will review the city’s disease surveillance, active case finding and contact tracing efforts to ensure effective response in case of a virus surge.

It will also assess the city’s testing capability and the efficiency of the local government’s molecular laboratory in processing specimens, as well as review the quarantine protocols and bed capacity of HOPE isolation facilities.

The task force will also assess equipment and manpower resources of hospitals handling moderate to severe COVID-19 cases.

Mayor Joy Belmonte has ordered the city’s Task Force Disiplina to ramp up monitoring in communities to ensure that health protocols are followed.

Data from the OCTA Research Group showed that Quezon City’s positivity rate, which measures the number of COVID-positive cases out of the total tests conducted, has dropped to five percent.

“This is good news for us. We were at five percent a week before the surge happened last February and March. This means that COVID cases and transmissions are monitored and controlled. We hope that this positivity rate would continue to decrease in the coming weeks,” Belmonte said.

The average number of new COVID cases in the city per day was at 123 last week, down from 141 in the preceding week.

Belmonte said the Department of Health has recognized Quezon City as one of the cities with the best contact tracing efforts, at 28.3 contacts per positive patient.