Delta cases logged in Ilocos Sur, Zamboanga City

MANILA, Philippines — Five cases each of the highly transmissible Delta variant of COVID have been recorded in Ilocos Sur and Zamboanga City.

Pangasinan and Tarlac recorded one case each.

Ilocos Sur Gov. Ryan Luis Singson on Sunday said he received an official confirmation from the Department of Health (DOH)’s Epidemiology Bureau about the presence of the Delta variant in his province.

In Zamboanga City, the Philippine Genome Center informed the health regional office on Friday about the detection of five cases in the city.

The Zamboanga City health office said the latest figure brought to six the total number of Delta variant cases in the city.

Meanwhile, the first Delta variant case in Tarlac was recorded in the town of Moncada on Sunday.

The case involved an 85-year-old woman who manifested mild symptoms of COVID and was confined in a private hospital in Tarlac City from Aug. 8 to 16.

The patient was declared “clinically improved” and underwent home quarantine from Aug. 16 to 23.

The city of Dagupan in Pangasinan also recorded its first Delta variant case involving an overseas Filipino worker who arrived from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on July 25.

Singson said the five Delta variant cases in his province were recorded in the municipalities of San Juan, Sto. Domingo and San Ildefonso with one each, and two in Cabugao.

Two of the cases were APORs or authorized persons outside of residence who traveled to Ilocos Norte. The rest were local residents with no travel history.

The cases in Zamboanga City belong to the same household, with the index case working in a shipping company, according to Dulce Amor Miravite, city health office chief.

Miravite said the patients were all asymptomatic and undergoing quarantine.