ILOILO City Government is bracing for the highest alert status of the Department of Health (DOH) due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas already discussed with hospitals and DOH Undersecretary Leopoldo Vega urgent solutions to address the problems.
"I was very alarmed that night when I saw that Iloilo and Iloilo City are both placed by DOH under Alert Level 4. As per DOH, this means there are community transmissions of more contagious Delta variant. We need to be ready," he said.
City Covid Focal Person Dr. Roland Jay Fortuna said they have put in place strict prevention measures including:
Strengthened active case findings and community testing through nasal and throat swabs for a polymerase chain reaction test.
Priority tracing is being done on close contact of Delta, all of positives of said variant are taken care of in the same quarantine facility.
Already in communication with Vega is increasing the critical care capacity of the hospitals, including increasing Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds.
Hospitals will no longer be vaccination sites for the general public but may give to family members of their health personnel if there will be adequate vaccine supply.
"After we were informed by DOH of the presence of three Delta variant positive patients, our Cesu (City Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit) immediately got to work. All of the Delta variant cases were requested to go to our quarantine facilities with their families, if any, to be swabbed. All close contacts will be swabbed. For the information of everyone, all three have recovered. But we will reswab everyone and all close contacts. Please be safe," said Treñas. (PR)