DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 03 August) – The two additional cases of Delta variant of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Davao City were exposed to an index case within their respective households, a local health official said.
Dr. Michelle Schlosser, focal person for Davao City COVID-19 Task Force, said during a virtual press conference of Department of Health (DOH)-Davao on Monday that the two patients – a 47-year-old male and 36-year-old female – were both swabbed last July 7 after they came in direct contact with a positive case.
Their specimens were among the samples submitted by the region last July 15 to the University of the Philippines-Philippine Genome Center (UP-PGC) in Diliman. The results of the genome sequencing of both samples also came out on the same day, July 29.
Although both cases were swabbed and their specimens submitted to UP-PGC on the same date, they did not share the same household nor were they from the same health district, Schlosser clarified in a text message on Tuesday.
She said all close contacts of the male patient in his household and community tested negative for COVID-19, but one of the household members of the female patient turned out positive for the virus.
She said they have yet to determine if the specimen of the patient could meet the criteria to qualify for genome sequencing, particularly the ones with a cycle threshold value of less than 30.
The cycle threshold indicates low viral load and entails the need for re-swabbing to secure samples for sequencing, according to DOH.[]/a> with |||
As of August 2, the DOH-Davao reported 54,924 cases with 6,411 active, 46,688 recoveries, and 1,825 deaths.
Of the total cases, Davao City, the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in Mindanao, logged 30,756 infections with 2,709 active, 27,012 recoveries and 1,033 deaths. Davao de Oro tallied 4,273 cases, Davao del Norte 10,583, Davao del Sur 4,644, Davao Occidental 1,039, and Davao Oriental 3,629. (Antonio L. Colina IV/MindaNews)
