CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews / 31 Aug) – The euphoria was short lived.
Dr. Ted Yu (left), of the Cagayan de Oro City Health Office, and Mayor Oscar Moreno during the Aug. 31, 2021 press briefing on COVID-19. Screengrab from the Cagayan de Oro Facebook page
The Department of Health – Region 10 (DOH-10) said Tuesday 27 new cases of Delta variant were detected in the city, bringing the total to 58.
The announcement ended the several days of euphoria here after a drop of COVID-19 cases was reported last August 28, the feast of St. Augustine, patron saint of Cagayan de Oro.
Mayor Oscar Moreno said the big number of new Delta variant cases would put additional strain to the contact tracers of the city.
“We are already grappling with the COVID-19 cases and now this. It will add more work to our contact tracers,” he said.
Dr. David Mendoza, DOH-10 assistant regional director, said the Philippine Genome Center detected 48 new cases of Delta variant cases throughout Northern Mindanao from the swab samples taken between Aug. 6 and 11.
Aside from the 27 cases in Cagayan de Oro, Mendoza said 11 cases were detected in Bukidnon, four in Lanao del Norte, one in Camiguin and five in Misamis Oriental.
Mendoza said the local government units of these areas are presently conducting intensive validation and contact tracing.
Dr. Ted Yu, of the Cagayan de Oro City Health Office, said of the 27 new Delta variant cases in the city, 16 are males and 11 are female.
“The youngest is 10 years old and the oldest is 86,” he said.
He said 17 cases are already considered clinically recovered, five are still active cases and confined in temporary treatment and monitoring facilities (TTMF), three already tested negative, while two have died.
But he said even the 17 recovered cases will have to be extracted and be brought to the TTMF for reswabbing.
He said contact tracing on the 27 new Delta variant cases began as soon as they received the report on Monday. He said that in the case of the two expired patients, they have already identified 21 direct contacts.
Seven of the new cases, Yu pointed out, are working in the same construction company in Barangay 30, Yu pointed out.
He said the rest of the cases in 15 other barangays are not related to each other: Carmen, 4 cases; Indahag, 1; Cugman, 2; Nazareth, 1; Macasandig, 1; Gusa, 2; Upper Balulang, 1; Balulang, 1; Bonbon, 1; Barangay 25, 1; Barangay 10, 1; Puntod, 1; Barangay 11, 1; Camaman-an, 1; Bugo, 1. (Froilan Gallardo / MindaNews)
