EIGHT of the 16 recently announced Delta variant cases in the country have tested positive for the new coronavirus again and have been reclassified as active cases, Department of Health (DOH) Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire announced Tuesday, July 20, 2021.
All eight are asymptomatic and undergoing isolation for 14 days. All are being monitored, Vergeire said.
She said one patient is from the City of Manila, four are from Cagayan de Oro City, one is from Misamis Oriental and two are returning overseas Filipinos (ROFs).
Of the 16 cases announced on July 16, 11 are local cases while five are ROFs.
Two local cases died, leaving nine other local cases and five ROFs who were tagged as recovered after completing 14-day isolation.
Following the release of the whole genome sequencing results, Vergeire said all nine local cases and five ROFs were reassessed and subjected to another reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test.
“When a variant is detected, our protocol is for the local Epidemiology and Surveillance Units to reassess the cases, retest and place them in quarantine again. They are allowed to go home only when they yield negative results,” Vergeire explained during a press conference Tuesday.
“When we retested these local cases and ROFs (with the Delta variant), we found that some of them were still positive (for Sars-CoV-2),” she added.
Three other local cases and three other ROFs with the Delta variant tested negative.
Meanwhile, Vergeire said they have traced 91 contacts of the 16 Delta cases as of 9 p.m. of July 19 - 46 contacts of the ROFs, 27 contacts traced in Northern Mindanao, 10 in Western Visayas and eight in the National Capital Region.
Manila City Mayor Francisco Domagoso had announced that they have traced 36 contacts, but Vergeire said Tuesday that the DOH was still awaiting the report on this.
The 16 cases announced on July 16 brought the total number of Delta cases in the country to 35, consisting of 11 local cases and 24 ROFs.
Three had died, a 63-year-old male ROF from MV Athens, a 78-year-old female from Antique and a 58-year-old female from Pandacan in Manila.
DOH officials said that while there were 11 local cases, there is no local transmission of the Delta variant in the country. (Marites Villamor-Ilano / SunStar Philippines)